"Qais led the group. Then I heard some shouting."
An inquest has heard that teenager Mohammed Qais Ratyal was speared to death by a shard of glass after falling through a greenhouse.
The 17-year-old was stabbed through the chest when he fell into the garden of a house in Halifax on November 5, 2022.
He and his friends were “garden hopping” and setting off fireworks.
Qais was found wearing a balaclava and lying in a pool of blood by a child’s swing after residents were alerted by the youths.
The teenager was rushed to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary but was pronounced dead at 9:46 pm that night.
The shard of glass had punctured the right side of his chest, causing a catastrophic haemorrhage and the collapse of his right lung.
Qais was part of a group that travelled from Bradford to Halifax and were later seen in Vickerman Street.
His cousin Ummat said he and Qais were part of a group of 10 to 15 people.
Ummat said: “There were around 200 people firing rockets into the street. We had rockets too.
“I was wearing a balaclava. We put them on because we were scared the cameras would see us.
“We started running. I followed everyone. We jumped over a wall into allotments and then we jumped over garden fences.
“Qais led the group. Then I heard some shouting.”
Ummat found Qais “sitting and leaning forwards, but he didn’t speak and his body flopped and his hands were trembling. He tried to lift his head up but couldn’t”.
Resident Aleksandra Gizewska said:
“I saw people running down my driveway and then when I opened the door I heard a smash. I shouted at them to get out.
“I saw people go over a fence but some of them came back and said they had lost someone and wanted to check on him.
“We then found him laying in the garden next to a bench in a pool of blood.
“He was trying to catch his breath. My neighbour Kim found the wound and the ambulance service told us to press hard to stop the blood.
“Then the ambulance arrived, they brought out a stretcher and took him in.”
Detective Sergeant Ellis said police knew what was happening on Vickerman Street that night and had studied CCTV.
It showed a “group were discharging fireworks on Parkinson Lane near Vickerman Street”.
He added: “The group started to scale fences into the allotments. The CCTV captured a group of males jumping over a fence.
“You could hear a crash into the greenhouse and footage showed a figure – Qais – lying on the ground.
“It was a high fence. He wouldn’t have known that the greenhouse was there.”
Coroner Ian Pears concluded: “This was an accident which occurred on November 5, 2022.
“Mohammed Qais Ratyal was garden hopping and during this endeavour, he fell into a greenhouse and glass punctured his chest.”
The teenager’s mother Nargis Ijaz said:
“Qais was born on May 25, 2005, at Bradford Royal Infirmary. He was a happy healthy child who had an older brother and younger sister.
“He played football for Sandy Lane and at his school, Dixons Trinity. His favourite players were Messi and Neymar.
“But boxing was his true love. He boxed at local clubs and wanted to box when he was older.
“He liked gaming, going out with his cousins and loved designer clothing.
“This tragic accident has left our family devastated.”
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