The mother of Axel Rudakubana mentioned that she believed the bow and arrow found in her son’s room could have been intended for sports use. During the Southport inquiry, Laetitia Muzayire initially denied seeing any weapons in her son’s room, contradicting her husband’s account of her presence at the discovery.
Alphonse Rudakubana, in his testimony at the inquiry, described finding the weapon in their son’s room and recalled his wife appearing frightened. However, Muzayire claimed that she had only briefly entered the room to change the sheets and did not see a bow and arrow, knives, firecrackers, or a substance in a box.
She later mentioned that her husband had previously informed her about seeing a bow and arrow in their son’s room, but she had assumed it was for sports purposes, not for causing harm to others. When confronted about her son not leaving the house since March 2022, she admitted to being naive rather than intentionally misleading.
Despite her denial, Muzayire’s fingerprint was found on knife packaging at their home on the day of the attack. She had initially denied seeing the packaging during a police interview, but her son Dion stated that she had shown him the knife packaging the year before.
Expressing her aversion to knives due to their association with past tragedies, Muzayire adamantly stated her peaceful nature and disapproval of harming others. When questioned about her son’s motives and choice of target, she suggested calling the police as a potential action to manage the risk he posed to others.
The parents of one victim, Elsie Dot Stancombe, voiced their belief that Rudakubana’s parents should be held accountable for their role in the tragic incident. They criticized the lack of parental oversight and failure to report concerns about their son’s behavior, emphasizing the need for accountability and acknowledging the devastation caused by their son’s actions.
In addition to Elsie Dot Stancombe, two other young girls, Bebe King and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, also lost their lives in the attack.
