RAPPER Joshua ‘Depzman’ Ribera cryptically whispered “Switch” to paramedics treating him as he lay dying in the street – weeks after his debut album hit number one.
The teenager, who had performed on stage with megastar Skepta and was tipped to go to the top, died aged 18 from a stab wound to the heart thanks to a love rival.
Joshua Ribera was stabbed to death age 18[/caption]
Alison Cope spoke to The Sun to mark the anniversary of her son’s death[/caption]
Josh leaves club TC’s, just moments before he was stabbed[/caption]
Speaking to The Sun on the anniversary of his tragic death, mum and StreetDoctors campaigner Alison Cope has revealed the full details from his final night for the first time – and why she still feels betrayed by the cops.
Josh was attacked after performing at TC’s nightclub in Sellyoak, Birmingham, ironically to mark a year since another teen was killed by knife crime.
Armani Mitchell, also 18, had seen Josh with his ex-girlfriend before confronting him as he left the venue to head home to nearby Moseley.
Mitchell became angry after seeing Josh joking with the girl, with who the former had had a baby.
CCTV shows the pair pushing and shoving as they crossed paths before the deadly confrontation in the car park outside in which Mitchell produced a flick-knife.
Nicknamed “Mini-Switch”, the teenage killer was jailed for a minimum of 18 years for murder just months later following a three-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court – with Josh having used his remaining strength to point the finger.
‘One scared young man carried a knife’
Alison, who raised Josh as a single parent, said: “My son died because one scared young man carried a knife.
“Josh wasn’t involved in gangs or drugs – he was probably the happiest he’d ever been the day he died, everything was going well and it was ripped away.”
Josh had just learned he would receive a £3,500 payout for iTunes pre-orders of his album, 2Real, which Alison said he immediately spent, including buying her a Michael Kors watch.
Then, later that evening at around 10.40pm on September 20 2013, he was leaving a tribute party to tragic pal Kyle Sheehan, 16, who was stabbed to death the previous year, when Mitchell attacked him.
“They knew of each other, but there was no major issue between them,” said mum-of-two Alison, 51.
“They’d had a minor argument, on and off during the night, but it had de-escalated.
“Armani had wanted to resolve it, finish the argument off and get the upperhand and put Josh in his place, I suppose.
“Josh was heading home and this young man, full of emotion and carrying a knife, stabbed him.”
Mitchell’s trial the following March heard how the killer had seen Josh with his ex and had threatened the rapper, saying: “Do you want me to wet you up?”
A couple of years ago, Alison had applied for the full CCTV of the incident, which she said left her in shock.
“You expect this massive fight, you assume during a fight he’s been stabbed, but it wasn’t,” she said. “That shocked me how calm it was.”
Alison, who also has a daughter, Sherelle, older than Josh, said she was at the family home when a female friend of her son’s had arrived at her door in floods of tears.
Armani Mitchell was jailed in 2014 for the murder[/caption]
Josh, circled, immediately before he was stabbed after leaving the club[/caption]
Mitchell and Josh clash in the club the same night as the murder[/caption]
Mitchell seen entering the club[/caption]
“This girl had been at the event and was saying ‘Josh’s been stabbed’ – at that point he was still alive and we headed to the hospital,” she explained.
“I can’t really explain in words the sense of panic – and it doesn’t get any easier 12 years on.
“I may appear calm and able to speak about it but the reality is very different.”
She said during the car journey to the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the sobbing girl “kept repeating” Mitchell’s name.
“She was just saying ‘he stabbed Josh, he stabbed Josh – in the chest, in the chest.’”
New campaign exposes dangerous myths around ‘non-fatal’ knife attacks among young people
A MUM whose teenage son was knifed to death in a row on a night out says many young people mistakenly believe there are “safe” places to stab someone.
Alison Cope, 51, has spoken to thousands of youths in schools and prisons across the UK since the death of 18-year-old Joshua Ribera in 2013.
The up-and-coming rapper died from a single stab wound to the heart, inflicted by Armani Mitchell, also then 18, after a party at nightclub TC’s in Sellyoak, Birmingham.
Alison, from nearby Moseley, is among the campaigners to join forces with charity StreetDoctors to expose the fatal misunderstandings about the reality of knife crime.
The Fatal Question aims to tackle misconceptions around street violence and raise awareness of the UK’s knife crime epidemic.
It comes as the latest ONS figures reveal eight in 10 young homicide victims are killed by a knife.
Alison said: “Over 10 years ago, my son Joshua was stabbed through the heart – and in that single moment, the trajectories of both our lives changed forever.
“There is no safe space to stab someone – every knife attack risks ending a life and devastating countless others.
“Speaking in schools and colleges across the country, I still meet young people who believe the myth that some stabbings aren’t fatal.
“If Joshua’s story and this campaign save even one life, then maybe another family will be spared the pain I live with every day.”
She told The Sun: “I’ve had students thinking you can stab in the heart, the leg the head and it wouldn’t be fatal.
“I spoke to a 12-year-old in prison who stabbed someone in the leg over an e-scooter – the young man cried in my arms and said ‘I didn’t realise they would die.’”
She said getting to the crux of why youths feel the need to carry a knife in the first place is crucial.
Alison said: “We have got some very damaged young people walking around the streets, who feel they have no hope and have little care for themselves.
“They genuinely don’t care that they are going to hurt people or take someone’s life – this has to change. Where is the outcry at Number 10? Where are the politicians talking about this?”
She went on to say, social media is particularly dangerous place, with arguments between teenagers spilling into real life.
“I’ve seen photos of knives sent between kids – all the posts they’re seeing are about violence.
“You’ve got children genuinely believing they need to carry a knife for protection, children of primary school age worrying older teenagers are going to attack them when they move to secondary school.”
As part of the campaign, interactive installation experiences project the real-life stories of young people who have died from single stab wounds – many in areas wrongly believed to be “non-fatal”.
Dr Martin Griffiths, Consultant Major Trauma Surgeon and the NHS’s National Clinical Director for Violence Reduction, says: “The question ‘Where is a safe place to stab someone?’ is one my colleagues and I have been asked by young people for over a decade alarmingly, it’s still asked far too often.
“This installation by StreetDoctors brings the harsh reality to life in a way that statistics never could. Behind every point on that sculpture is a real victim, a grieving family, and a life forever changed.
“It’s a wake-up call to every one of us: there’s no such thing as ‘safe’ violence – and the consequences of carrying a knife are real and irreversible.”
Once they arrived at the hospital, Alison learned her son had received a single stab wound to the heart and was undergoing surgery.
“The first thing I noticed was how many people had turned up at the hospital because it had been put on social media,” she explained.
“I was just sat on the floor of a cubicle and a nurse came and said ‘we’re working on him, we’re trying to help him’.
“At that point you’re in such a state of shock and panic, you don’t really think what it means – at no point was he stable enough for me to see him.
“They were just trying to desperately save his life.”
Alison said amid multiple ops in the early hours of what was a Saturday morning, Josh was moved to intensive care due to a “slight pulse”.
Alison with tragic Josh as a child[/caption]
Josh’s bedroom has been adorned with photos, letters and artwork, including that sent by fans after his death[/caption]
Josh as a baby – with Alison raising him as a single parent[/caption]
“They were just seeing what was happening,” she said. “But he had a heart attack and they actually performed open heart surgery while he was in the bed on the ward.
“He passed away at 5.58 in the morning, so I never got a chance to see him.
“He was being cut open, ribcage sawed open, all those horrific things – the trauma enables you to say that.”
She went on to say: “He died in the morning and then it’s like your entire existence, soul, heart, basically blown into millions of pieces and can never be rebuilt.
“You shove a few together over the years but you’re destroyed and that’s the way it is. There’s no way of coming back from it.”
Alison said part of her role in those agonising hours was “crowd control” as she managed the huge crowds of teenagers who’d arrived outside the hospital awaiting any news.
“You’re in such a state of distress that you’re trying not to totally lose it in case they come to you and say you can come see him or we need you to sign this form,” she explained.
“You’re fighting your own emotions. And it’s not like you can say ‘how long’ or ‘what’s happening’ because you’re in shock, I just waited and waited and waited.
“Then they come and tell you he’s passed away.”
Alison said suddenly “you’re on your own” and she was trying to process what was happening when half an hour later she was told she could see Josh to say her goodbyes.
Floral tributes left to Josh after his death[/caption]
Alison next to a life size cut out of her son in his bedroom[/caption]
“I was taken into the ward, not a private room that people assume, it wasn’t a private area, it was a ward with people sat up in bed drinking tea,” she explained.
“I walked to the end of the ward, the curtains were closed and I was able to go and sit and see him – I spoke to him, kissed him and then that’s it.
“You’re given two leaflets and you go. I think now, all these years on, how the hell did I do that?”
Alison said she walked outside the hospital and was greeted by hundreds of Josh’s friends and fans.
“I had to tell them that he’d died,” she said. “It was like someone had let off a bomb of emotions.”
During the trial, several months later, she said the court was advised by police not to allow Alison to read her victim impact statement as it was felt – with many of her son’s fans in attendance, it could be triggering and lead to major disruption.
“That was so unfair, there was apparently concern that my words could trigger a reaction – I think it’s so strange, but at the time you just do as you’re told,” she said.
For the same reason, she wasn’t able to be in the courtroom while Mitchell was cross-examined on the stand.
“I never got to hear him speak, hear his version from his own mouth. It was very complicated,” Alison said.
She and Josh shared “such a close relationship”, she said. “Showing our love and affection for each other was a very normal thing.”
Josh and Alison were always very close[/caption]
A text exchange between mum and son a couple of weeks before he died[/caption]
She recalled how on the evening he died, he’d been excited as he got ready for the performance.
“It was a really happy day, his album had just gone to number one in the iTunes charts, he bought me a watch I’ll treasure forever,” Alison explained.
“After he’d got ready he hugged me and said ‘see you later mum’.
“I said ‘see you later’. Then ‘I love you mum,’ ‘I love you, Josh’ and I never ever saw him again.
“That in itself has led to so much post traumatic stress because whenever anyone leaves or goes out my brain just thinks that person is going to be killed, they’re going to die.
“My daughter has got children and whenever they go anywhere I just think you’re going to die. It’s stupid but that’s how I think all the time.
“I never thought in a million years Josh would walk out of the door and be murdered.
“Look how many families are destroyed, look how many people – that spark, that light goes out in them.
“You’ve met many families and they’re never going to be the same again. For some of them they turn to drugs, alcohol, suicide, some become recluses, it’s very hard to come out of the other side.”
Josh’s album had been released on July 27 2013, just weeks before his death.
“He did live as much as he wanted, as much as I could possibly allow,” Alison said.
“He went to Spain at 16 and performed with Skepta. I think how on earth did I let him do that? But he did it and I’m glad.
“That day he got stabbed was probably one of the happiest days of his life.
“His ultimate goal was his happiness and being at peace with himself.
“To have got that at 18, most people don’t achieve that in a whole lifetime. I can tap into that at my worst and think ‘just keep going.’”
