Jazwell Brown's victim talks to BBC about 'traumatising' attack
It was early evening in a block of flats when Bradley Latter saw Jazwell Brown walking down the hall with a baseball bat in his hand.He did not think anything of it as his neighbour would regularly walk into their home in Santa Cruz Avenue, Bletchley, in Milton Keynes. But then he heard a scream from his fiancée Teohna Grant and was pushed back into the living room as Brown began to stab him repeatedly with a knife. It was a brutal attack in which his partner died, along with their neighbour Joanne Pearson.
Recalling the events of that evening the 30-year-old said that "it felt like an eternity but it couldn't have been longer than a second before I realised what was happening"."I did not know I was being stabbed at the time. I could just feel a pressure and a sort of cold feeling up towards my shoulder."He said his "objective was Teohna" as he did not know where she was and he hoped she had got out of their flat. "I just wanted to keep him [Brown] there as long as possible so she could get away."Ms Grant managed to crawl to the balcony of their flat and attempted to get help, but was attacked again by Brown. The 24-year-old died at the scene, having been repeated stabbed. Brown, who had been smoking crack cocaine, was given a life sentence with a minimum of 39 years for the murders of his partner Joanne Pearson, 38, and Ms Grant on December 25, 2024. The 49-year-old also admitted attempting to murder his son, Jake Brown, 18, and Mr Latter.
During the attack Mr Latter said he kept asking, "Why are you doing this? What have I done?"Brown was staring directly at him but there was no expression – "Just a blank stare."Mr Latter told the BBC how he remembered feeling weaker due to the blood loss. "I did the only thing I could think at the time and I fell to the floor and played dead," he added. He then noticed Brown walking out and he ran to the door and through the keyhole he saw his neighbour, Ms Pearson, face down.Mr Latter picked his phone up he was surprised it unlocked as it was covered in blood but he managed to call 999.
After making his way downstairs "one officer came running in and that image haunts me. She saw me and froze".He told the BBC he had suffered 20 stab wounds to the neck during the onslaught but it is the emotional consequences that he is still struggling to deal with. "It is the nightmares which are the worst – replaying the events over and over again... and I do not think they are going to stop," he said. He added that still living in the flat where his partner was murdered "is just traumatising by itself, especially being alone most days"."Nothing I can do can bring Teohna back but I have to live for her," Mr Latter said.
Mr Latter is now calling for police need to be given powers to deal with knife crime more robustly, along with additional funding for more rehabilitation centres. "People need to understand it is not cool [to carry a knife], it is not protection. "It is just not worth someone's life. Police are there for a reason whether people like it or not."Mr Latter said he loved to work but now he feels "useless" and that his "entire independence has been taken away".He added: "The moment I lay down and become depressed, in a way he [Brown] has won."
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