Police investigating a serious assault in Telford have launched a murder investigation following the death of the victim.
A man in his 40s was found unconscious on Withywood Drive in Malinslee and was taken to hospital with serious injuries at around 4.30pm on Monday afternoon.
He died in the early hours of this morning as a result of injuries sustained during the assault.
Six people have now been arrested – a woman aged 38, two 16-year-old boys, a 15-year-old boy and two men aged 41 and 39 – they all remain in police custody.
Enquiries are on-going into the man’s death, which is now being treated as murder, and police are continuing to appeal for witnesses.
The investigation is being led by Detective Inspector Mark Bellamy from West Mercia Police’s Major Investigation Unit, he has offered his condolences to the family of the man who died.
He said: “Our thoughts are with the family at this time and we offer them our deepest sympathy, we continue to have specially trained officers offering them support and will continue to do so throughout our investigation.
“The local community will play a significant role in our enquiries and, while I am grateful for the people who have already come forward and spoken to us, this is now a murder investigation and it is vitally important anyone who has any information and has not yet spoken to us gets in contact.”
Increased patrols will be carried out in the area to offer reassurance to the local community.
Yesterday local policing commander for Telford, Superintendent Tom Harding, reinforced his commitment to tackling violent crime in the borough.
Speaking yesterday he said: “Incidents of this nature have a significant impact on our local communities and I will ensure we have officers in the local area over the coming days to offer reassurance to local residents. Anyone who is concerned can speak to an officer on patrol or to call us.
“We are working tirelessly to help make our communities even safer and we will continue to work with our partner agencies to ensure we do this. I would like to reinforce my commitment to making sure we tackle violent crime and that our local communities can go about their daily lives without fear of crime.”
Anyone with information about the assault can report this to West Mercia Police on 101 quoting reference 522 180618 or alternatively Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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