NOTTINGHAM killer Valdo Calocane punched and kicked two colleagues at a warehouse just weeks before he murdered three people, including student Grace O'Malley-Kumar, 19, whose family has been among the most prominent voices calling for answers.
Grace, who was of Indian heritage, was stabbed to death alongside fellow University of Nottingham student Barnaby Webber, also 19, and grandfather Ian Coates, 65, in the early hours of June 13, 2023. Three more people were injured when Calocane drove a van into pedestrians in the city centre.
The Nottingham Inquiry, sitting at Mary Ward House in London, heard on Tuesday (10) that on May 5, 2023, five weeks before the killings, Calocane attacked two colleagues at an Arvato warehouse in Kegworth, Leicestershire, where he had only just started work.
The two victims, a married couple, were punched and kicked. The husband said Calocane had looked at him in a "strange manner" before approaching him and asking "why are you talking to me?" He was then punched behind the ear while his back was turned, and punched again as he tried to get away.
"When I fell down, I was extremely dizzy, the room was spinning with me, I couldn't see well," he said in a statement read to the inquiry.
As he lay on the ground, his wife stepped in front of him. Calocane then kicked her in the knee and shoved her hard in the chest, knocking her on top of her husband.
A training coordinator at the warehouse, known only as Louisa, said she rushed over after hearing screams and placed herself between Calocane and the couple.
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"VC was just stood in front of me, there were no words coming out of his mouth," she said. "His attention was not on me — he was looking through me."
A security guard, Volodimir, told the inquiry he also stepped in and spotted what looked like a Stanley knife on the floor near Calocane.
"I straight away told him 'stop, you can't do this'," he said. "I noticed a knife was next to him and I kicked the knife out the way."
The warehouse operations manager, Matthew, said he told police officers, who arrived around 20 minutes after being called, that he felt there was "something not right" with Calocane mentally.
Calocane had already been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the time, and there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. He had failed to appear in court in September 2022 after assaulting a police officer the previous year.
Despite this, the inquiry heard that police did not visit any of the witnesses or victims in the weeks that followed the warehouse incident. By June 2, nearly a month later, no statements had been taken. On June 10, just three days before the murders, Leicestershire Police sent an email asking witnesses to get in touch.
The inquiry also heard that a warehouse manager had given police a list of witnesses and asked to be the point of contact, but had received no reply.
Calocane is currently detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital. He received a hospital order at Nottingham Crown Court in January 2024 after prosecutors accepted his plea of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.
The inquiry is looking at the actions of agencies including Nottinghamshire Police, the University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, all of whom had dealings with Calocane before the attacks.
According to reports, hearings are expected to last nine weeks.
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