Three teenagers have been jailed for life for the fatal stabbing of 17-year-Reuben Higgins at Vape Minimarket in Marston Green, Solihull
Reuben Higgins
‘Young men killing young men has to stop’, that was the simple but powerful message delivered to three teenagers who murdered a boy in a vape shop for seemingly no reason.
Reuben Higgins was stabbed to death at Vape Minimarket in Marston Green, Solihull, shortly after 6pm on October 29, last year.
He was unarmed, defenceless and pleading for his life.
READ MORE: Killer teen yells ‘I’m still breathing’ as he’s jailed for vape shop murder of boy, 17
Today (Monday, September 15), at Birmingham Crown Court, Abdurrahman Summers, aged 19, from Yardley, and two 16-year-old boys who are too young to be identified, were sentenced to life.
When the proceedings began on Friday, emotional victim impact statements were read to the court.
Reuben’s father, Dominic Higgins, said he ‘adored’ his ‘precious, beautiful boy’.
Reuben Higgins.(Image: WMP)
He stated his ‘world fell apart’ when he died and that he had been left ‘consumed by uncontrollable darkness’.
Step-mother Polly Hudson described Reuben as ‘funny and kind’ and said the impact of his death had been ‘far-reaching’ within the family.
“We are undone, unravelled. Sleep is elusive. We are full of heartbreak and anxiety,” she added.
Ms Hudson described the teen killers as ‘heinous’ and said: “You may think your actions made you tough. They didn’t. They made you weak.”
She described the ‘wreckage’ they had left behind and concluded: “Young men killing young men has to stop.”
Reuben’s mother Sarah Cooke described him as her ‘best friend, my mini me in likeness and personality’.
She spoke of his ‘hopes and dreams’ of getting married, becoming a dad as well as one day having his own home and business.
Ms Cooke stated she had been left ‘heartbroken, lost and lonely’, adding: “A piece of me is now missing.”
Aunt Gemma Brodrick said: “Reuben had a lightness to him and like his dad was quick to laugh and giggle.”
She stated the defendants ‘hunted him like animals’, adding: “Knife violence is an epidemic and it feels hopeless.”
While grandmother Felicia Higgins said: “A huge part of me has been ripped out and nothing can ever heal me.”
Abdurrahman Summers(Image: WMP)
Judge Paul Farrer KC, passing sentence earlier today, told the defendants: “This is the future that you have consigned Reuben’s family to.”
Summers was handed a minimum term of 19 years, while the 16-year-old who stabbed Reuben in the arm and leg was given a minimum term of 17 years.
The second 16-year-old who ‘assisted and encouraged’ the attack was handed a minimum term of 15 years.
A fourth suspect is believed to have initiated the confrontation by accusing Reuben of threatening him with a knife on a previous occasion, of which there was no evidence.
He is also the one thought to have delivered the fatal below.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, remains at large.