Police get extra time again to quiz Nottingham killings suspect, as car victim let go from hospital
16 June 2023, 14:32 | Updated: 16 June 2023, 14:37
Police have been given extra time again to question the suspect in the Nottingham triple killing this week.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Valdo Amissão Mendes Calocane, thought to be a 31-year-old West African man living legally in the UK, is still being questioned in custody by officers over the Nottingham attack.
Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace Kumar were killed and three more were injured in a stabbing and van attack throughout the city in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
One of the people hurt in the van attack has been discharged from hospital and the other two are in a stable condition in hospital, the local NHS trust said.
Officers were initially given an extra 36 hours to question Calocane, and said on Friday afternoon that they had another extension until the early hours of Saturday morning before they must release or charge him.
Police normally have 24 hours to keep someone in custody before charging them - but this can be extended to up to 96 hours for extreme cases like suspected murder.
Listen and subscribe to Unprecedented: Inside Downing Street on Global Player
Police said on Thursday that Calocane had been a student at Nottingham University, where Barnaby and Grace were studying. Officers said they did not think this was related to the killings.
A Nottingham University brochure listed Calocane as a 2022 graduate in mechanical engineering.
Barnaby and Grace, two 19-year-old University of Nottingham students, and Ian Coates, a 66-year-old caretaker, died in the attacks.
A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police said on Thursday: "A team of dedicated detectives is continuing to question the suspect and building up a strong picture of what happened that morning.
"This has included CCTV gathering, forensics, eye-witness accounts and searching a number of properties in the city.
"They added that they believed the suspect to have been a former University of Nottingham student, but don't think his this was connected to the attack."
It emerged on Wednesday that the suspect was known to MI5 because he turned up to the agency's London headquarters and tried to get in.
He was told to move on and his name was taken down when he arrived at Thames House and knocked on the door in August last year.
His name is understood to have come up as spies searched for any information about the man after the attacks happened early on Tuesday.
"He turned up one day and literally started banging on the door. He was moved on and logged," a security source told The Sun.
Meanwhile Suella Braverman visited Nottingham on Thursday to lay a wreath commemorating the victims.
The Home Secretary also included a hand-written note that read: "In memory of those who lost their lives, those who were injured and everyone who loves them.
"We are with you and with all the people of Nottingham."
Vigils were held on Wednesday and Thursday nights to mourn all three victims, where the families of Mr Coates, Grace and Barnaby paid tribute to the victims
