A young gangster boasted on Snapchat 'look at the meat on that' while showing off a bloodied zombie knife he used to kill a rival, a court heard.
Oumar Traore allegedly made the 'sickening' boast less than five minutes after 19-year-old Yassin Alama was fatally stabbed in Hutton Road, Handsworth, on Sunday, November 16 last year.
Yesterday, Thursday, June 4, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the pair confronting each other before Traore walked away and Mr Alama collapsed to the ground.
Gang Rivalry
The court heard that the defendant was 'spirited' from the scene and sheltered at numerous addresses before being arrested seven days later. Police seized a number of weapons from him as well as purple bandanas, said to demonstrate Traore's supposed allegiance to the B20 postcode gang in Handsworth.
The prosecution has said the killing was the latest incident in an ongoing rivalry involving opposing gangs in Aston, with which the victim was associated.
Details of the Incident
Traore, then aged 17 but now 18, of Hutton Road, Handsworth, has denied murder and possessing a knife in public. CCTV footage showed him and Mr Alama, who was also armed with a knife, clashing on the street at 5.20pm.
At one stage they appeared to separate. Prosecutor Tim Hannam KC said: 'Mr Traore has walked away up the street. He's put some distance between him and Yassin and the confrontation seems to be over. But, rather than carry on walking away, Mr Traore comes back and goes on to inflict what the Crown say was the fatal blow at the end of the fight by the cars.'
He told the jury: 'You will have to consider why he did that and what he intended at the time he did so. As we've seen he then walked away again leaving Yassin to collapse and die in the street.'
The court was told Traore walked around the corner on to Westminster Road and joined friends, who had been involved in an earlier altercation with Mr Alama. From there he was driven away in a Vauxhall Corsa.
Snapchat Evidence
'What he did then you may find chilling,' said Mr Hannam, who told the jury police obtained an overseas production order against US-based Snapchat for access to the accounts of Traore and other relevant people.
'If you think Snapchat automatically deletes contents after a period of time, you are going to have to think again,' he added.
The jury was told Traore, whose nickname was 'Omizz', called his account 'Omizz200' with the inclusion of '20' to reflect his B20 gang affiliation.
Mr Hannam said at 5.25pm Traore posted a video to his Snapchat group of friends showing his blue and black zombie knife which had 'blood glistening on the blade and lumps of flesh stuck to it'.
The prosecutor went on: 'You will hear Mr Traore saying something like 'Look at the meat on that it's warm, it's warm.''
He added: 'He was boasting, say the Crown. He was you may think basking and glorifying in the fact he has just run a gang opponent through and through with that large fearsome knife.'
Mr Hannam called the video 'disgusting, disgraceful and utterly sickening'.
He told the jury that deeper analysis of Traore's Snapchat account revealed him to be 'fascinated' with zombie knives and machetes which he bought and sold to other people.
Previous Knife Comments
The court heard that, a matter of days before the killing, someone had asked Traore if he wanted to swap his zombie knife. It was alleged the defendant refused, replying that he wanted to keep it because it 'slides in (with) not too much force'.
Emergency services tended to Mr Alama but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 5.43pm.
It is believed Traore moved between a number of properties before he was arrested at an address in Quinton Road, Harborne, on November 23.
From there he was taken to Oldbury custody suite where he issued a prepared statement admitting to killing Mr Alama but saying he acted in self-defence.
He said he was 'sorry and upset' Mr Alama had died. Mr Hannam asked the jury to compare that to his earlier Snapchat video.
The prosecutor described the killing as a 'deliberate and planned attack on a rival gang member'. The trial continues.
