Graduate, 23, who was beaten to death in the street was attacked ‘after row over bike’
- David Allan, 23, died after attack in home town of Wythenshawe on Thursday
- The graduate was beaten to death following a row over a bicycle outside shops
- Witnesses say his attacked waited for him after the row and then ambushed him
- Police have so far arrested four people in connection with Mr Allan’s death
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Murder investigation: David Allan, 23, died following an assault in Wythenshawe
A university graduate was ambushed and beaten to death following a row over a bicycle.
Police launched a murder inquiry after the death of David Allan, 23, in hospital a day after the sustained daylight attack by two men.
Witnesses said he got into an argument minutes earlier outside a row of shops. His attackers lay in wait for him in a van 300 yards away, before knocking him to the ground and punching him in the head.
Locals said they heard Mr Allan screaming during the ten-minute attack in Wythenshawe, Manchester, around 6pm on Thursday before the pair sped off, hitting a car as they fled.
Three suspects were initially arrested, two men and a woman. A man, 39, and a woman, 42, held on suspicion of assisting an offender, were later released pending investigations.
Police stand at the scene in Wythenshawe following the assault on Thursday evening
Last night a 33-year-old man was being questioned along with a fourth man, aged 30, who was arrested on Saturday.
One witness, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I heard screaming and saw the lad being punched.
‘It was a vicious attack as they punched him on the floor.
‘Apparently he got into a row with someone as he left the shops – it was about a bike.’
Forensic officers arrive at the scene, as police say they are treating the incident as murder
‘Their family then lay in wait for him in a van.
‘They jumped out and beat him up.
‘There was blood on the pavement.
‘It’s so senseless over something as trivial as a bike.’
Mr Allan is believed to have grown up in Wolverhampton.
His family paid tribute to the ‘much-loved son’ and ‘keen sportsman’.
They said the Plymouth University graduate had been working in a shop at Manchester Royal Infirmary during the coronavirus epidemic ‘cheerfully serving key workers, patients and visitors’.
Police described the vicious assault as an ‘isolated incident’.