Doonside teen stabbing victim Iyzaa Naden’s last words: ‘Help mum, I can’t breathe’

A relative of a teenage boy stabbed to death in Doonside has recounted the heartbreaking final moments before he died in his mother’s arms on Friday night.

It’s the picture that is a sombre reminder of Sydney’s deadly postcode wars – two mates killed two years apart in shockingly similar attacks.

Iyzaa Naden, 18, and Uati “Pele” Faletolu stand together as brothers in a music video for song “Our Way” representing a notorious gang called “67”.

One will be dead within months after being stabbed at the 2022 Easter Show, the other is now dead after being stabbed in front of his mother at a bus stop at Doonside on Friday.

A relative said Mr Naden’s last words were: “Help mum, I can’t breathe”.

Easter Show stabbing victim Uati Faletolu (right) featured alongside Izaaya Naden in the music video for the song “Our Way” by local 67 rappers MT and Sio.

Iyzaa Naden, 18, who died on Friday.

Riot Squad Police conducting a line search outside Crawford Public School in Doonside, near where the stabbing occurred, on Saturday morning. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Yesterday relatives were remembering Iyzaa as a “beautiful boy” rather than another victim in street gang violence.

“Thank you to everyone who has sent their love and condolences … we just wanna be left alone atm to take everything,” his mother wrote yesterday.

Relatives said Mr Naden was travelling with friends, his mum and two other relatives when they were approached getting on a bus at Power St.

Witnesses told police a group of teens allegedly asked: “Are you 67 yeah?” before stabbing Mr Naden in the abdomen.

One died on the footpath outside Blacktown Police Station. Picture: TVN

His mother then drove her son and his 19-year-old wounded brother Jaryea to Blacktown police station.

There is no suggestion any of his family and certainly his mother had anything to do with any gang.

This morning Jaryea woke after surgery learning his brother was dead.

Iyzaa died before officers could save his life on the steps of the police station.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder. Police are investigating possible links to the gang RFA.

“He was such a beautiful boy. They were just on their way to go and get McDonald’s,” a ­relative told The Sunday ­Telegraph.

After a night that saw helicopters buzzing over their street and their small community locked off as a crime scene, many locals believed there would be more violence.

One homeowner just metres from the crime scene described the suburb as “a war zone”.

“It’s become the new normal here now, it’s horrible,” they said.

“I’ve built this home, my kids were raised here and are now adults, I love my home but things like this make me want to leave.”

For others the sight of Riot Squad cops combing through the streets was all too familiar.

A tent is set up around the body of the teen outside Blacktown Police Station on Friday night. Picture: Richard Dobson

THE POSTCODE WARS

A child as young as five watched on as knives were brandished in broad daylight.

Her mother told The Sunday Telegraph the girl is now traumatised by what she saw.

“My daughter was waiting to get on the bus as (the boy got stabbed),” she said.

“They ran off and knocked my daughter over while she was screaming her heart out and they left some scratches on her.”

It was the brazenness that had senior police horrified.

“It’s not something the community should expect,” Blacktown police commander Superintendent Paul Glinn said.

“And it’s quite apparent from looking at some of the footage … it certainly caused alarm in the area.

“I guess I would say that it is something that’s happened but it doesn’t happen regularly. Hopefully we can make the community feel somewhat safer with the fact that there’s an investigation ongoing.”

After a spate of alleged tit-for-tat attacks in the postcode wars, he warned teens not to take things into their own hands.

Witnesses says the stabbing incident erupted on the bus and spilt out onto Power St. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I guess we would really reinforce with the community … don’t seek to take action yourself because that will result in you potentially committing a criminal offence,” he said.

But social media was already full of taunts, with one even posting they should “free” the boy charged with stabbing Mr Naden to death.

Yesterday another post emerged mocking the tragedy, with a picture captioned: “not 66 anymore it’s 65” followed by several laughing emojis.

The relative and multiple neighbours near the scene of the tragedy recalled how a group of teens claiming to be from RFA had been roaming the streets of Doonside for weeks “looking for trouble”.

The suburb of Doonside has been terrorised for years by warring street gangs chronicling their violence in music and on social media.

Just minutes from where Mr Naden died, 15-year-old Jason Galleghan was bashed to death in 2020 by a group of teens aligned to “67” who filmed and then posted the footage online.

In September 2021 in nearby Blacktown another teen lost his life after a wild brawl because of a jab in a music video.

Senior police officers lamented how frequent the clashes had become. “We’ve been throwing every resource possible at this,” one said.

RFA is a gang based out of Mt Druitt, who like many others are using social media and music to taunt rivals and provoke others in acts of violence.

They were first thrown into the spotlight in the 2022 Easter Show, though in the past six months have used music to describe in graphic detail stabbings, shootings and assaults.

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