A man who was among four pedestrians hit by a car on Christmas Day in the West End of London has died in hospital, the Metropolitan police said. They named him as Aidan Chapman.
Chapman, 25, was seriously injured in the incident on Shaftesbury Avenue and died on New Year’s Eve. Police said they were treating the death as homicide and an “isolated incident which is not terror-related”, and that a postmortem examination would take place in due course.
Chapman was one of four pedestrians who were hit after a Mercedes-Benz E-Class car drove on the wrong side of Shaftesbury Avenue in London’s theatre district. All four were taken to hospital, although the three others are understood not to have sustained life-threatening injuries in the incident which the Met said was reported to its officers at 00.45 in the early hours of Christmas morning.
A police cordon on Archer Street and Great Windmill Street covered the Windmill Soho nightclub and other venues in the city centre.
Chapman’s parents said: “The loss of our beautiful son is a parent’s worst nightmare. We are utterly devastated with the loss of Aidan, he enriched everyone’s lives. He was a loving, kind, funny soul and the world is a darker place without him. We, his parents, have lost the best part of ourselves.”
Anthony Gilheaney, 30, of Harlow in Essex, appeared in court last week charged with four counts of attempted murder and a number of offences in relation to the crash, including causing serious injury by driving while disqualified and possessing a knife in a public place, after he was accused of carrying a small knife in Lincoln’s Inn Fields earlier the same day. He is due to appear at the Old Bailey on 24 January.
The Met said the charges would be reviewed after Chapman’s death.
DCI Wayne Jolley, from the Met’s specialist crime command, said: “Our thoughts are with the victim’s friends and family at this difficult time.
“My team are continuing to conduct inquiries to establish all the facts surrounding the circumstances. However, it has been confirmed as an isolated incident which is not terror-related.
“We would appeal to anyone who holds any CCTV or dashcam or mobile phone footage of the incident to come forward as well as anyone else who might have had contact with the suspect that evening.”
