It was shortly past nine p.m. on the evening of Saturday, February 3rd, 2001, and twenty-one-year-old Akbal Brar, a trainee mechanic from Southall, was driving his white Ford Fiesta in Park Parade, near Barra Hall Circus in West London. A friend of his was in the passenger seat.
Akbal pulled the vehicle alongside the curb in front of a row of shops, and the man in the passenger seat began talking to an unidentified black man who was standing on the sidewalk. Suddenly, another man approached on foot from the opposite direction and shot Akbal once through the car window, hitting him in the head. The shooter then fled the scene.
Despite his injury, Akbal was able to drive home, and he called an ambulance that transported him to Ealing Hospital. Sadly, though, Akbal later succumbed to his wound.
Investigators were baffled by the shooting, which had occurred in Hayes, a relatively quiet, safe area of the city where street crime was very rare. And in spite of their best efforts, they failed to uncover a motive for the shocking crime, which remains unsolved as of April 2025.
Crime Immemorial 