Twelve-year-old Leo Ross should have been home in ten minutes.

Instead, his walk through a Birmingham park ended in tragedy, after he was stabbed in what police have described as a random and unprovoked attack. Leo is now believed to be the youngest victim of knife crime in the West Midlands.

This was not gang-related. There was no known dispute. No warning. No reason.

Leo’s family and teachers remember him as a gentle, kind-hearted boy who loved fossils, made friends easily, and “didn’t have a bad bone in his body.” He was simply doing what thousands of children do every day — walking home from school.

Members of the public rushed to help after the attack, desperately trying to save him before emergency services arrived. Today, flowers line the path where he fell, turning a quiet park walkway into a place of mourning.

His school has been left devastated. His family is facing an unimaginable loss. And an entire community is struggling to understand how a child with his whole future ahead of him could be taken so suddenly.