His car was his murder weapon

A JURY HAS now found Trevelle Rowland, 34, guilty of murder, dangerous driving and two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm after two incidents – one in East Ham and another in Barking.

It was the early hours of Sunday, 24th March 2024 when the Metropolitan Police and London Ambulance Service were called out to Barking Road, East Ham, following reports that there had been a collision. Officers found Fergany Mvuezolo, 35, at the scene: they performed first aid on the severely injured man, but they could not save him and he was pronounced dead.

Murder victim Fergany Mvuezolo

Police immediately launched an investigation. Witnesses identified the man who had driven his car at Fergany as Trevelle Rowland of Cornelia Street, Islington. CCTV and mobile phone footage showed them that Rowland and his victim had been involved, with some other men, in an argument outside a restaurant. Rowland had left the scene – only to return in his car, a VW Tiguan, a short time later, and to drive that car at Fergany.

Having identified their suspect, the police launched a man hunt. They found their suspect at Heathrow Airport later that day. Their prompt action had stopped him from leaving the country. Rowland had a receipt from the restaurant in Barking Road outside of which the argument had occurred.

The investigation did not stop there. Police remembered that some ten months before the Barking Road incident, on 29th May 2023, there had been a similar incident outside a pub in Ripple Road, Barking. On that occasion, two security guards had asked a man to remove his baseball cap – only for him to then drive at them, using a VW vehicle. One of the security guards was thrown up onto the bonnet of the car and injured his knee and ankle. The other guard suffered a minor injury to his hand.

The police found a VW in Barley Close, Dartford, later that day. The following day, Rowland came into Dagenham police station and asked about the car. He denied that he had driven it at the security guards, claiming that he had rented the car to an associate. He was later charged with two counts of attempted Grievous Bodily Harm, in addition to the charge of murder arising out of the more recent event.

Detective Inspector Aytac Necati, who led the investigation, said: “Rowland is an extremely dangerous man. He used his car as a weapon against three men – one of whom tragically lost his life. Rowland is also a devious liar. He misled police about the initial attack, in which he ran his car into a pair of security guards over a trivial dispute – only to go on to kill another man using the exact same method. Both of the incidents were captured on CCTV. We would like to express our sympathies to the family of Fergany Mvuezolo, and to Rowland’s two living victims.”

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