The grieving mother of murdered David Darko has said she "forgives" her son's killer, as police continue to question a 19-year-old man in connection with the death.
Mr Darko, 21, was found suffering from a fatal stab wound near a children's play area in South Norwood Recreation Ground, close to Tennison Road, on Saturday evening.
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Paramedics tried to revive him but he died at the scene, and detectives soon opened a murder inquiry.
Speaking outside the family home in Canal Walk today, Mr Darko's mother Ivy pleaded for whoever had killed her "calm and jovial" son to take responsibility for their crime.
She said: "The person who did this, we have already forgiven them. There is no normal human being that would do that, who sets off to go and kill the other fellow.
"It's good to accept your fault. I have already forgiven the person, but they shouldn't fear, they should be bold and come out and accept their fault."
Flowers and written tributes to Mr Darko, a supermarket night worker and former pupil at Archbishop Lanfranc School, could be seen laid at the fence of the children's play area in the park today.
One read: "Dear David, no one can believe you're gone, it was such a shock. You didn't deserve this. You wasn't that kind of guy at all.
"I remember those MSN days when we used to play checkers and noughts and crosses."
A photo of David Darko from his Facebook page
Family friend and neighbour Venus Beh, a pastor at the Rapture Ministries Church of the Open Bible in South Norwood, said: "We are Christians, so we believe...we know that the devil has entered that person [Mr Darko's killer].
"They need to change their life because at the end of the day they can't live like that.
"And then they are ready to forgive themselves and accept Christ in their life.
"They need to accept their responsibility for a healing process to begin."
She added: "We lose our son now, we can't bring him back, but there is another soul that's alive that we can win to Christ."
Ms Darko, who said she had slept "just half an hour" since learning of her son's death, called on anybody with "any sort of information that will speed up this process" to come forward.
She said: "If anybody saw anything at all that can help, they should come out and say it to the police".
A police forensic expert at South Norwood Recreation Ground on Sunday
On Tuesday , detectives investigating Mr Darko's death arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of murder. He was still in custody at a south London police station today [Thursday] after police applied for an extra 24 hours to question him.
They can ask for more time up to a maxium of 96 hours but officers told Ms Darko they expected to update her by Friday morning.
Ms Darko said she had been "relieved" to learn of the arrest, but had hoped for "more positive news".
She said: "If nobody has been charged, then they will still have my son's body. Then I will have to wait for how many days, months, I don't know.
"Devastation, shock, all of those feelings - I need closure."
Her younger sons Mark, 18, and Earl, 14, were struggling to cope with the death of their eldest brother, Ms Darko said.
Mr Darko had been working night shifts at Sainsbury's in Streatham to earn money to pay for university, where he hoped to study railway engineering.
Paying tribute to her eldest son, his mother painted a picture of a quiet, focussed young man, whose only vice was a passionate love of video games.
She said: "He goes to church, and then come home and sit on the Playstation.
"When he comes from work, straight to that Playstation, four hours he's there, and you have to tell him to come off, you're a grown man, come off that thing.
"David is a calm person, very calm, jovial. He wants structure in his life, he wants discipline, like: 'This is what I'm doing, get on with it, get off it'."
The last time she saw David alive had been on Thursday afternoon, when he asked her to make him some jollof rice to take to work that night.
Ms Darko, a night-shift care worker, said she had no idea what would have caused David to be in South Norwood Recreation Ground on Saturday night, where he was found just after 7.45pm.
She said: "He would always tell me where he's going. But that evening I was sleeping - I hardly get time to sleep, so they don't wake me up.
"I didn't think he would go far - he had ironed his uniform, he was due to go to work, leaving home at 9pm, he starts work at 10pm. If he leaves home at 7.45pm, I would presume he would be getting something from the shop down the road and come back, normally he wouldn't go out like that if he's going to work.
"So something or somebody must have got him out, something that he would think is important."
On a bright, crisp morning in South Norwood Recreation Ground today, no trace remained of the police tape, sniffer dogs and forensic teams that had closed the whole area for 48 hours from Saturday evening: a crime scene turned back into a park.
A scattering of commuters and families made their way along the path, grateful for the winter sunshine after days of rain.
Every so often, someone would stop to examine the flowers that lay by the fence of the children's playground: a quiet reminder that, on Saturday night, the life of an ambitious young man had been snatched away from him.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Metropolitan Police on 020 8721 4054 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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