A promising young footballer was stabbed to death in East London after an argument over a bicycle.

Jahmal Mason-Blair, 17, was found on Amhurst Road, Hackney, by a passing police patrol car shortly before 1am on Saturday. Officers said that he had been stabbed in the neck.

London Ambulance Service and the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service were called, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Residents yesterday spoke of the events that led to the young man’s death. One 44-year-old man, who identified himself only as Selly J, said: “The fight was over a bike, which is really petty. Jahmal’s younger cousin was fighting another boy and Jahmal tried to stop the fight. He was just trying to calm it down. But when he stepped in, the other boy took out a knife and that’s when Jahmal got stabbed — it wasn’t meant to happen. He was a peacemaker.”

Selly J said that his sister was the first person at the scene. She had heard the victim screaming for help and had consoled his young cousin.

Dmitri Drozdov, 31, said: “I heard shouting. It sounded like there was a fight going on and then the shouting became really scary. I went to look at what was happening and I saw the guy was lying in a pool of blood.”

Another witness said that the disturbance involved about 20 boys. Police confirmed that they were questioning a 13-year-old about the stabbing. A spokesman said that the boy was being held in custody at an East London police station after being arrested at 8.30pm on Saturday.

Shaun Mason, 30, the victim’s half-brother, said Jahmal’s father, Wesley Blair, collapsed when he heard of his son’s death and had to be taken to hospital. “He didn’t have a bad bone in his body. Everyone is just shocked,” he said. Their mother, Tetela Rafeal, who lives in Florida, was flying back to Britain after being told of her son’s death.

Jahmal attended the Tottenham Hotspur development centre for young players and had a trial at Reading Football Club. According to friends and family who visited the scene yesterday to pay their respects and lay flowers, it was Jahmal’s dream to become a professional footballer.

Jahmal’s teenage niece, Daryien, said: “He was a good boy and he was never in trouble. He never lived by the knife or the gun, he just lived for his football.”

Connie Drew, a friend of the family, described Jahmal as “a great kid”. She said: “You never saw him without a football. That’s the worst thing, he had an aim in his life and he was pursuing it. He wanted to make something of himself.”

One friend, who would give her name only as Bev, said that Jahmal was the star player in the Shoreditch Neighbourhood Wardens’ football team. She said he was a determined and polite young man who must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yvonnne Young, whose son Jordan, 17, was a close friend of Jahmal, said Jahmal’s friends were “just in pieces”. More than 1,500 people joined a Facebook group set up in his memory.

Acting Detective Chief Inspector Phil Rickells, who is leading the Homicide and Serious Crime Command investigation, said he hoped that more witnesses would come forward. A post-mortem took place in East London yesterday.

Jahmal was the seventh teenager to be stabbed to death in London this year. A total of 29 teenagers were murdered in London last year, including 22 stabbings.

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