Three teenagers and a 41-year-old man are still being questioned by police after the fatal stabbing of a new father at a house in Stevenage.
The victim, who has been named by local residents as Chris Hewitt, was attacked at his sister’s end-of-terrace home on Friday night.
Police were called to Meadow Way at around a quarter past nine after a neighbour was asked to alert the emergency services.
Mr Hewitt, who had a five-month-old baby and an older daughter, was rushed to the town’s Lister Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short while later.
A Go Fund Me page to help his two children has been set up.
Flowers were left on the doorstep of the three-bedroom house. Its curtains were closed.
A photograph of 31-year-old, who is not thought to have been working, was stuck to a nearby lamppost. Other tributes left at the scene read: “I have a hero his name is Daddy,” “I have an angel watching over me and I call him Daddy,” “In loving memory I miss you always brother.” Another said: “Christopher I can’t imagine my life without you in it. Always winding me up. This is so unfair. I’m gonna miss you so much.”
One neighbour said: “It is a terrible shame. He has just become a father. The baby is only five-months-old.
“We don’t know who did it. The only information we have is that the police have arrested four people.”
One woman, who didn’t want to be named, said: “The first I knew something was wrong was when I heard shouting and screaming. I was outside at the time in my garden and I could hear a woman was upset and what sounded like men shouting.
“Then I heard the sound of someone running down the street.
“We’ve been told the victim was stabbed and the person who did it is a youth – a teenager.
“We’ve heard that after it happened he knocked on the door of a neighbouring house and told the people inside he had stabbed someone and to call an ambulance before he ran off. That was what I heard, the sound of him running.”
At the house where the alarm was raised a woman said: “You will have to speak to the police.”
Other neighbours said they heard shouting and screaming before an ambulance and armed police arrived. The victim was brought out on a stretcher and put into an ambulance.
Nine police vehicles were sent to the small street and police dogs with handlers were on the scene as officers shone torches at the house and a woman officer could be heard calling on the occupants of the house to come out.
Officers from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire (BCH) Major Crime Unit arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of murder on Saturday, February 13.
A 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man were arrested on Sunday, February 14 and are in custody.
Detective Inspector Justine Jenkins from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire (BCH) Major Crime Unit said: “A murder investigation has been launched and is being led by the BCH Major Crime Unit.
“We are pursuing a number of lines of enquiry but are also appealing for any witnesses or anyone who has information about what happened to contact us.”
She said: “We have made a number of arrests but as we pursue a number of lines of enquiry we are also appealing for any witnesses or anyone who has information about what happened to contact us.
“We are in the early stages of this investigation and extensive enquiries are being carried out to help establish the sequence of events before and after the incident.”
Over the weekend much of Meadow Way was cordoned off as forensic officers worked inside the house to piece together what happened on Friday night.
Searches had also been conducted on a stretch of grassland at the back of the property as specialist forensic officers in white suits searched a hedge.
At one point they were seen to carefully bag up something that had been pulled out of the undergrowth.
One neighbour said it wasn’t the first time police had visited the house.
“It’s normally such a quiet street and they are the only people in the street who cause issues. I would not be surprised if this has something to do with drugs,” said one neighbour.
Anyone with information can report online at herts.police.uk/report, or speak to an operator in the Force Communications Room via our online web chat at herts.police.uk/contact or call the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference Operation Mant
Anyone who wishes to remain anonymous can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or via their untraceable online form at crimestoppers-uk.org.
