Driver used car as ‘weapon’ to hit e-bike rider – but killed teenager ‘in wrong place’

A driver who aimed his car at an e-bike rider but killed a teenage boy ‘in the wrong place’ killing him has been jailed for life.

Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Taleb, 16, was throwing and catching a water bottle as he walked home in the Darnall area of Sheffield in June last year.

Zulkernain Ahmed was driving his grey Audi down the wrong side of the road when he mounted the pavement aiming at e-bike rider La’rome Divers – knocking him over a hedge.

The vehicle ploughed into the teenager, also known as Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Al-Yazidi, ‘innocently’ walking along the pavement. The teen was thrown in the air by the impact.

He died later in hospital.

Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Taleb was innocently throwing a bottle in the air when he was struck (Picture: South Yorkshire Police/PA Wire)
Prosecutors said Zulkernain Ahmed used the car as a ‘weapon’, killing Abdullah, who was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.

Mrs Justice Tipples jailed him for life on the anniversary of Abdullah’s death on June 4.

He will serve a minimum term of 30 years.

Ahmed’s brother – father-of-one Armaan Ahmed, 27, who was a back seat passenger in the Audi – was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.

He was also found guilty of causing Mr Divers grievous bodily harm and jailed for 17 years.

The judge told the brothers that Abdullah ‘was an optimistic person who loved life and loved people’.

‘He was always smiling, adored by his family and loved by everyone,’ she said.

Zulkernain Ahmed who has been convicted of the murder of Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Taleb, who died when he was hit by an Audi S3, in Sheffield South Yorkshire Police/PA Wire South Yorkshire Police/PA Wire)
‘He was only 16-years-old when, walking in the afternoon sun on the pavement of Staniforth Road on June 4 last year, he was murdered by a car driven on the pavement by you, Zulkernain Ahmed.’

She said: ‘The court is very well aware that that was a year ago today.’

The judge said of Abdullah: ‘He was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

She said his ‘senseless and shocking death has been devastating for his parents, sisters and wider family and friends’, adding that their lives have been ‘changed forever by this terrible and tragic murder’.

DCI Ben Wood, of South Yorkshire Police, said: ‘Abdullah was a purely innocent boy who was walking down the road, nothing to do with any kind of dispute that was ongoing, and then he’s been killed because people are using a vehicle as a weapon to try and hit other people.

‘People have seen the footage, and it’s horrendous and really tragic.’

Armaan Ahmed who was a back seat passenger, and who was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter (Picture: South Yorkshire Police/PA Wire)
Mr Wood said: ‘For anybody to lose a life over an e-bike is absolutely tragic, and no reason whatsoever for somebody to lose their life.

SOURCE https://metro.co.uk/2026/06/04/driver-used-car-weapon-hit-e-bike-rider-killed-teenager-in-wrong-place-28648899/