Knife killer Abdirahaman Yussuf facing life for Yahya Sharif murder on Coventry Road, Birmingham

A killer is today facing a life sentence for the murder of Yahya Sharif who was stabbed to death moments after getting out of his car on one of Birmingham’s busiest roads in rush hour.

Mr Sharif, aged 18 from Nechells, had pulled his BMW up onto the pavement on Coventry Road, Small Heath, when he was ambushed.

The young man, who had ambitions to become a digital marketing specialist, was stabbed once in the chest and managed to run away - but quickly collapsed and then died at the scene.

CCTV captured a group chatting nearby in the moments before the attack, and then heading towards the victim’s car, at around 5.20pm on December 10 December last year.

The men, some of them masked, approached Mr Sharif, who turned and was immediately stabbed by Abdirahaman Yussuf, 20, of Hob Moor Road, Yardley.

A murder hunt was launched and officers recovered a knife from a street nearby. Following a public appeal for help in finding Yussuf, he was arrested in London on 16 February this year. Hidden in an envelope in his sock were handwritten rap lyrics apparently referencing the stabbing.

Following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court which started in October, Yussuf was found guilty of murder today (Friday, 9 December).

Three other men with him at the time had denied a charge of murder on the basis they all acted together and they were found not guilty following the trial at Birmingham Crown Court. A fifth man was acquitted during the trial.

Det Insp Hannah Whitehouse, leading the investigation for West Midlands Police, said: “Yussuf attacked Mr Sharif without warning or provocation and sadly, the motive for this killing may never be clear.’’

Yussuf will be sentenced on a date to be set.