The Unsolved Murder of Eddie Owusu

Edmund (Eddie) Owusu came to England from Ghana in 1967, with his wife and three children. At the time of his death, Eddie was working as a car park attendant at the Sussex place NCP car park at Hammersmith Broadway in London, where he had worked for five years.

On January 17, 1987, Eddie arrived at work as normal at 10 am to open the kiosk for the day. It was a cold morning, with snow and ice on the ground. It was a long shift and at 7 pm, Eddie’s wife called him at work. He told her that he was very busy and would call her back, but he would never get the chance.

The evening was especially busy as the NSUK (now SGI-UK), a Buddhist group, was hosting a performance of Alice of wonderland at the Hammersmith Odeon. The car park was used by theatre patrons, with people coming from all over the country to see the performance. The show was due to start at 8 pm, but it was delayed slightly and did not start until around 8.20 pm. However, people were still arriving at the car park after this time.

At 8.50 pm, several people that were on Hammersmith Bridge Road heard two loud bangs. One person thought that the noise was a car backfiring in the car park. Ian Mole, who was waiting for the bus, knew that it was a shotgun and shouted for someone to call the police. Ian ran towards the car park kiosk, where he found Eddie bleeding heavily on the ground. The door of the kiosk had been broken. There was still money on the counter, so Ian did not know what had happened.

From the road, a witness saw two men weaving between parked cars in the car park. One was wearing a duffel coat and appeared to be tucking something into the front of his coat. The two men ran across Hammersmith Bridge Road, almost being hit by an oncoming car. The witness then saw them go onto Angel walk, but they then disappeared out of view.

Eddie died of gunshot wounds to the thigh in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The police told the public that they were looking for two killers with no apparent motive other than robbery. So why did they kill Eddie? Police believed that the robbery had gone wrong. They surmise that the two men went into the kiosk to steal money, but on entry, they realised that most of the cash was stored in a safe under the floor, to which Eddie had no key. They panicked and shot Eddie. There was no need for two shots, though. The first shot would have wounded Eddie, so much that he would not have been able to chase after the robbers. It was the second shot that killed him.

Police believed that Eddie was not the desired target, he was just in the way of the robbery. Eddie was well-liked with no enemies. His employer said he was a very hard worker and that they could not ask for a better employee.

It was a very busy evening, so the police thought that some people must have seen these men. They also appealed to car thieves who broke into a car in the car park approximately 20 minutes before Eddie was killed. Over 30 people came forwards, but no arrests were made.

There is very little that has been written about Eddie since his murder. As of July 2022, Eddie’s murder remains unsolved.

Sources

http://www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=7428&termRef=Eddie%20Owusu

Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette — Friday 20 February 1987 — https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002482/19870220/007/0003

Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette — Friday 30 January 1987 — https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002482/19870130/015/0003