Final moments of public schoolboy Yousef Makki before he is stabbed to death: CCTV shows teenager, 17, with his friends seconds before one of them knifed him through the heart in fight
The final moments of a public school pupil who was fatally stabbed by his friend were caught on CCTV and show him breaking into a run just seconds before he was attacked.
Yousef Makki, 17, who was a pupil at Manchester Grammar School, was attacked by Joshua Molnar, aged 17 at the time, during a fight in upmarket Hale Barns, Cheshire, on the early evening of March 2, 2019.
Molnar, from a wealthy Cheshire family, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter by a jury following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court in July 2019. He claimed self-defence after Yousef pulled a flick knife on him.
The chilling CCTV footage shows Yousef, who is distinguished by his glasses and white trainers , walking a few paces behind Molnar and Adam Chowdhary, also a Manchester Grammar pupil, on Gorse Bank Road in Hale Barns.
At an inquest which finished last week, South Manchester's senior coroner Alison Mutch said she could not safely rule that the death was either unlawful or accidental. She recorded a narrative conclusion following a seven-day hearing at Stockport Coroner's Court.
CCTV catches the final moments of Yousef Makki (pictured), 17, from Burnage, south Manchester, after he was stabbed in heart with a flick-knife on 2 March 2019
Joshua Molnar, aged 17 at the time, was captured slowly walking backwards away from Gorse Bank Road after the incident occurred before returning nearly two minutes later
Joshua Molnar (left) and Adam Chowdhary (right), both aged 17 at the time, were recorded on CCTV on March 2, 2019 at The Square shopping centre
Adam Chowdhary can be seen making a call in the car park under Booths supermarket in Hale, Manchester
Molnar, a former public schoolboy from a wealthy Hale family, said he knifed his friend in self-defence, alleging Yousef pushed and punched him and called him 'p***y'.
He was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter following a trial at Manchester Crown Court in 2019, telling the jury he had acted in self-defence and wasn't sure who had pulled a knife first.
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Coroner Alison Mutch rejected this claim yesterday, saying she could not be satisfied ‘on the balance of probabilities’ that Yousef’s death was ‘accidental’.
However, she added: ‘The precise circumstances in which he was wounded cannot, on the balance of probabilities, be ascertained.’
Rather than recording the death as an unlawful killing, Miss Mutch delivered a narrative verdict.
In the last video footage that captured Yousef alive, he can be seen breaking into a run at 6:34pm on the evening of March 2 before a confrontation with Molnar.
Before the footage comes to an end, which was obtained by the Manchester Evening News, Molnar slowly walks backwards away from the Gorse Bank Road clash after the incident occurred before returning nearly two minutes later.
Yousef was a straight-A grammar school pupil at Manchester Grammar School (pictured)
Tributes to Yousef Makki were left outside by friends and family at Manchester Grammar School (pictured)
Molnar claimed in his evidence to the inquest that Yousef drew a knife and that he put out his hands in self-defence while holding his own weapon.
The pair’s mutual friend Adam Chowdhary said he did not see Yousef with a knife in his hand - but told the inquest he did not see the actual confrontation, which took place in the leafy Greater Manchester suburb of Hale Barns.
Ms Mutch refused to release police body-cam footage but agreed that edited CCTV footage could be released.
After Yousef's friend Adam Chowdhary had arranged a small cannabis deal, the three went to a country lane near Manchester Airport to collect the drugs.
But Molnar was beaten by two associates of the alleged dealer and his £2,000 Starling bike was thrown over a hedge.
Molnar said he blamed Chowdhary, who had cycled away from the confrontation, and later took Chowdhary's £300 jacket as 'compensation' until the bike was returned.
He said that while he was annoyed with Chowdhary, from a wealthy Hale Barns family, he had not been upset with Yousef, who had tried to find his bike, and just wanted to get home as the fight had left him 'dazed'.
Joshua Molnar, (pictured) then 17, who was sentenced to 16 months in a young offenders institution after he pleaded guilty to possessing a knife and perverting the course of justice
Molnar told his 2019 trial: 'It was more Yousef who wanted me to stay out.
'I think he just wanted me to find my bike, just get everything sorted so we were all on good terms.
'I just wasn't really having it. I really wanted to go home, so I started to get a bit more adamant. I was getting a bit more angry, so I'd said: '"F**k off, I'm going home."
'Then I believe Yousef's got a bit annoyed with me. He's called, he's called me a p***y.
'I've got annoyed at this, because obviously I was the only one that was stood there and got a beating, whilst one of my friends ran off and the other one kind of just watched.'
The CCTV footage shows Yousef and Chowdhary, who is wearing the cap and has a manbag, arriving at The Square shopping centre in Hale on mountain bikes at 3.45pm on March 2.
Yousef had spent the night at Adam's house. The footage shows Molnar, riding a racer and with a spliff in his mouth, join the pair at 3.58pm. He is distinguishable by his grey jogging bottoms and manbag.
The three cycled into the underground car park of Booths supermarket shortly after 4.01pm where Yousef is seen shadow-boxing.
Chowdhary is captured on his phone - he told the inquest he tried to call his drug dealer to reduce an order for cannabis he'd made while still at home from £90 to £45.
He said the trio smoked Molnar's joint while in the car park. In turn, the three boys cycle out of the underground car park from 4.38pm. Molnar is still smoking his spliff.
Chowdhary told the inquest Molnar had been 'impressed' when they showed him the flick knives he and Yousef were alleged to have had in the car park.
Chowdhary said he and Yousef had jointly ordered the pair of flick knives on Chowdhary's phone in a break from lessons at Manchester Grammar School a fortnight earlier.
He said he and Yousef had one each when they left Chowdhary's home that day. Molnar had his own pen-knife.
The three boys are captured cycling along Chapel Lane towards the M56 at 4.50pm. Chowdhary told the inquest Molnar asked to see his flick knife, that he handed it over and never got it back.
Police on Gorse Bank Road in Hale Barnes, Greater Manchester, where Yousef Makki was fatally stabbed on March 2, 2019 (above)
Chowdhary is captured cycling quickly by the same camera but in the opposite direction at 5.02pm. He is seen looking over his shoulder.
Out of view of any camera, Molnar had just been beaten and had his bike thrown over a hedge by associates of an alleged drug dealer.
Molnar is walking backwards up Chapel Lane with two unidentifiable figures at 5.05pm - he is without his £2,000 carbon fibre Starling racer. He is followed a few seconds later by Yousef on his bike.
The two boys are then captured heading in the opposite direction down Chapel Lane at 5.13pm - Yousef had agreed to help Molnar find his bike.
Chowdhary is seen arriving at his home on Carrwood at 5.36pm. He leaves a few seconds later. He goes home a second time six minutes later. Now in darkness, Chowdhary is captured leaving home at 6.10pm.
He told the inquest he didn't tell his mother about the drama which had unfolded earlier.
Chowdhary said: 'I didn't want to tell my mum... They are drug dealers. I don't want to tell my mum about drug dealers or organising to pick up weed.'
The three boys reunite later and Molnar is captured taking Chowdhary's £300 jacket on Chapel Lane at 6.30pm. He denied a suggestion he had 'snatched' it.
This is the last time Yousef was captured alive, at 6.34pm and 46 seconds.
The inquest heard the fatal stabbing occurred, unseen by any camera, at about 6.36pm.
A security guard, Michael Bowman, who told the inquest he saw 'pushing and shoving', is seen heading to the scene in his car.
He said he told 'very panicked' Molnar to remove his top and use to stem the bleeding from Yousef's chest wound.
Mr Bowman told the inquest: 'I remember questioning the two males; did they know how the incident occurred? Did they know if there was danger still about?
'And the reply was that there was a gentleman in a grey or blue hatchback and the hatchback was no longer on the scene.'
Following his 2019 trial, Molnar was handed a 16-month detention and training order after he pleaded guilty to possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and perverting the course of justice by lying to police at the scene.
Chowdhary, now 19, was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice at the 2019 trial. He was given a four-month detention order after he admitted possessing a flick knife.
He told the inquest he was looking at his phone and so didn't see the stabbing, saying he had heard Molnar's comments about the car and 'reiterated' it to police.
Yousef's sister, Jade Akoum, who sat through every day of the inquest, said: 'The CCTV speaks for itself. We are an open book.
'We just want the truth. We want everything out there and let people make up their own minds about what's gone on.'
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