Evington Brawl Leaves Man in Serious Condition — Residents Say ‘It’s Gone Bad’

A street brawl in Evington, Leicester has left one man in a serious condition in hospital and prompted locals to speak out about what they describe as an entrenched and worsening crime problem on their doorstep. Police were called to St James Road at 2.48am on Saturday, 11 April, after reports of a fight involving five men. Two others were also injured in the incident, and two men — aged 38 and 36 — have since been arrested on suspicion of affray.

Brawl on St James Road Leaves Man in Serious Condition

Officers arrived to find the group had dispersed, but a scene preservation cordon was put in place along St James Road — close to the Evington Road junction — as investigations got under way. Detectives began a door-to-door operation the same morning, requesting CCTV footage and dashcam recordings from residents and local businesses.

One man in his thirties remains in a serious but stable condition. A second man was treated for minor injuries and subsequently discharged, while a third person had already left the scene before police arrived. The two arrested men were taken into custody and Leicestershire Police have confirmed that enquiries are ongoing.

A police spokesperson said: “Detectives would like to speak to anyone with any information who may have been in the area at the time of the fight and who may have seen those involved.” Anyone with CCTV, dashcam footage, or information is asked to call 101, quoting incident number 77 of April 11. Readers familiar with how quickly violent incidents can escalate in Leicestershire will understand why police are keen to piece together events before the trail goes cold.

Residents: “There’s a Lot of Crime Here and It’s Gone Bad Recently”

What makes this story more than a routine court report is what local residents said in the aftermath. Their words paint a picture of a community that does not feel safe and has felt that way for some time.

One man who works locally told reporters: “There’s a lot of crime around here and I think it puts people off coming here. I’ve worked here for two years and there’s a lot of bad things that happen here.” He said he had arrived at the shop at 9am to find police tape everywhere and no information about what had occurred.

A woman who has lived on St James Street for 25 years — raising her family near the Evington Road junction — said: “There is quite a lot of fighting around here, but I have no idea why. We were supposed to get a CCTV camera fitted above a lamp post near here, but it hasn’t happened yet. We’ve been here for 25 years and it’s gone bad recently. This morning there were lots of police around and they came to get our doorbell footage.”

Osman Mahmood, who works at Odra International Supermarket on Evington Road, told reporters that five or six officers were searching the area when he opened at 8am. “There is a lot of crime here, including murders sometimes. There are a lot of drug people around so crime is always bad and police are always here,” he said. He added that the supermarket has no working external cameras, limiting what it could offer police.

Evington’s Crime Problem Is Real — So Why Is Nobody Fixing It?

The residents of St James Road and Evington Road did not wait for an invitation to air their grievances. They came out of their homes, they spoke to reporters, and they said what they have clearly been saying to each other for years: this area has a crime problem, it has been getting worse, and they are tired of it.

The data backs them up. Evington ward recorded 323 crime incidents in a single month in early 2025 — with violent crime accounting for 94 of those, the single largest category. At a ward level, violent crime rates in Evington put it in the second highest bracket among its immediate neighbours. The wider Leicester picture is no more comforting: the city records around 103 crimes per 1,000 residents annually, well above the UK average of 72, and violence and sexual offences make up 40% of all recorded crime in the city — 37% higher than the national rate.

These are not abstract numbers. They are the context in which the woman on St James Street has raised four children. They are the backdrop against which Osman Mahmood opens his shop every morning. And they are the environment into which a group of five men walked at 2.48am on a Saturday and one of them ended up in serious condition in hospital.

The CCTV camera issue raised by the local woman deserves particular attention. She said one had been promised above a lamp post near her home — and it had not been installed. This is not a new complaint in Leicester. Across the city, residents in higher-crime areas have long argued that CCTV provision is uneven and that promises of improved surveillance have a habit of disappearing into a backlog somewhere in the council. That absence of cameras is not just a minor inconvenience — it is the reason Leicestershire Police were knocking on doors at 8am on a Saturday morning looking for doorbell footage from neighbours, because there was apparently nothing else to go on.

Leicester City Council and Leicestershire Police both have published strategies around violence reduction and community safety. The city’s violent crime figures have shown a slight year-on-year decrease — down around 2.9% in the most recent data. That is something. But a 2.9% reduction does not change the lived experience of a woman who has watched her neighbourhood deteriorate over 25 years, or a shopkeeper who describes murders as a not-unusual occurrence on his street.

There is a difficult truth here that tends to get lost in the language of partnerships, strategies, and multi-agency frameworks: the residents of Evington are not asking for a report. They are not asking for a consultation. They are asking for their street to feel safe. The woman who has lived there for 25 years said it plainly — it has gone bad recently. That is a verdict on years of policy, policing, and resource allocation. It deserves a direct answer, not a press release.

Two men are in custody. One man is in hospital. And the residents of St James Road will wake up tomorrow — and the day after — and walk past the spot where it happened. We will be watching to see whether the response to this incident goes beyond an arrest or two and actually begins to address what the community is telling us.

Have Your Say

Do you live in Evington or the surrounding area? Have you noticed crime getting worse in recent years — and do you feel the police and council are doing enough? Share your experiences in the comments below. If you have information about the St James Road incident on 11 April, contact Leicestershire Police on 101, quoting incident number 77 of April 11. And for ongoing crime and community news from across Leicester, keep reading yourlocalsource.co.uk.