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12-year-old Leo Ross regularly used The Shire Country Park in Hall Green, Birmingham, as a short-cut on his way home and was fatally knifed there on Tuesday afternoon.
Tragic stabbing victim Leo Ross chillingly told pals he feared walking through the “sketchy” woods where he was stabbed to death.
The 12-year-old was fatally knifed as he cycled through the country park in Hall Green, Birmingham, on his way home from school on Tuesday.
Detectives were granted more time today to quiz a 14-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of murdering Leo.
The teen is also being questioned about three assaults on pensioners in the area in the days before the killing.
One of the attacks took place just hours before Leo was savagely stabbed in The Shire Country Park.
Locals said the park, which is used as a shortcut by school kids, has been plagued by anti-social behaviour.
Leo was just minutes away from his home when he was attacked. He was airlifted to hospital after being stabbed in the stomach but later died from his wounds.
Leo’s pal and classmate Jack Pugh, 13, told the Mirror his friend regularly went through the park on the way home to his foster family.
“It was his cut-through,” he said. “He always said it was a sketchy area to be honest. He was a really good lad. Nothing really bothered him that much and he was overall a really good person.
“He was just a normal lad who liked to play video games on PS and things like that. We heard about it on the day it happened and there was rumours it was Leo.”
He tried to text his friend to check if he was okay but none of them made it through. Tragically Jack found out later that night that Leo had passed away.
He said: “One of his other friends told me and I was shocked. You just would never expect it. He was such a nice lad.”
The schoolboy arrested for Leo’s murder was initially also held on suspicion of attacking a woman in her 80s.
But today police revealed he was also being quizzed over two more assaults on elderly members of the public in Hall Green.
West Midlands Police said the victims of the assaults are aged in their 70s and 80s.
Chief Supt Richard North said: “I would ask the public and the media not to speculate on the motive of this incident. The investigation is in the early stages and we have someone in custody.”
Tributes continued to pour in for Leo today. Relatives described him as “the most beautiful, kind child” who “had not one aggressive bone in his body”.
A simple and poignant picture of Leo with an adult male and a young girl was placed in front of a red lantern at the scene yesterday.
A card left next to the lantern read: “Rest in peace my boy, love mom and dad xxx.”
A graffiti mural featuring Leo’s name and an anti-knife crime message appeared opposite his school overnight.