Little did Stacey O’Donnell know the danger her son Tai was in as he said goodbye to her, saying, “You don’t understand what I’m dealing with.” The next day, March 3, 2021, the 19-year-old was dead. Stabbed by his girlfriend. The woman stabbed him in the back four times. A woman so small that when she was later seated in front of an English court, her feet couldn’t reach the floor.
During the trial, Kamila Ahmad attempted to present herself as a victim. This failed because she had already abused a previous boyfriend. He had always kept silent about the fact that Kamila Ahmad had stabbed him three times. Because of a ridiculous fight over the remote control. He only came forward at the trial for the murder of Tai O’Donnell.
Mum Stacey O’Donnell told The Times of London that her son was embarrassed to say he was hit by his girlfriend. “I saw his tension. But I thought it was just your average, toxic relationship. There was nothing average about it. It was severe abuse. My son didn’t want to die.”
Tai was seen as a friendly, nice boy who had a great future as a music producer. He was open and confident. Kamila Ahmad, on the other hand, had a reputation for being a “bad girl,” Stacey O’Donnell told the paper. The girl had had a “particularly difficult” childhood and youth, and her judge recognized that. She had to witness how her mother was “abused and seriously injured” by her father. When she met Tai, she was 21 and had already accumulated 11 convictions for 17 felonies. She was sentenced to four years in a juvenile detention center on charges of assault, possession of a weapon, and robbery, but was released.
In the relationship, Kamila Ahmad quickly became assertive and dominant, Stacey O’Donnell said. She controlled which friends Tai was allowed to see and when he had to come home. She pounded on his door at night and smashed the window with a brick. One day, the mother discovered bite marks on her son’s neck. She didn’t recognize the real drama. “Tai wasn’t a shy little boy,” says Stacey. “He had a strong spirit. I never thought he would find himself in such a situation.”
But the situation was hopeless for the boy. If he wanted to separate, Ahmad threatened him. “I swear that one day I will stab you,” Kamilia Ahmad reportedly said. Or she blackmailed him with the announcement of a suicide. “Tai became less confident, less motivated and dejected.”
The police didn’t want to ask Tai for help. “He was a young, popular boy, he didn’t want to be seen as someone being terrorized by a girl. He was embarrassed.” For Tai’s mother, the circumstances were inscrutable. Ahmad also bore marks of violence. She is said to have banged her own head against the wall, perhaps she was also abused by her mother. Stacey O’Donnell urged the couple to split. The whole relationship was “poisoned”. Saying goodbye to her son one last time, she said, “Baby, it’s killing me to see you live like this.”
She later blamed herself for his death. “When you have a responsibility to protect someone and something like this happens to you, you feel responsible,” she told The Times. “If only I had been more patient, if I had just taken more time with him, why did I let him undress so young?”
On the night of death, Tai and Ahmed fought constantly, as the neighbors later testified. At 3:27 a.m. Ahmad posted on Snapchat, “I stabbed someone and nobody is helping me clean up here.” Only the next day did a neighbor call the police, who then found the boy who had bled to death. Despite his severe wounds he could have survived, it took him half an hour before he died of blood loss. His girlfriend did nothing to help him. Kamila Ahmad only lied out of the situation. She told police she was a neighbor’s sister and had nothing to do with the whole thing.
“It shows with frightening clarity how highly dangerous you are,” the judge said, explaining his verdict sentenced.
Sources: Times, Sky News, Standard
