The teenage boy arrested for the Southport knife attack was “an introvert” who “never went out”, according to neighbours.
As a young child he had been “boisterous” with his sporty older brother but was otherwise known for being shy and “clingy” with his mother.
The triple murder suspect was born in Cardiff to immigrant parents who were described as “nice, quiet people struggling to make a living after coming from Rwanda”.
The family had moved to Banks, a Lancashire village six miles north of Southport, around a decade ago.
Doorbell camera footage from the cul-de-sac before the attack shows a masked man pacing outside a house, which was raided by police hours later.
His father went out to work while his mother is thought to have stayed at home.
A neighbour living in the quiet cul-de-sac said of the suspect: “I’ve never seen him out on his own. I think I’ve probably only ever seen him on two or three occasions.”
But he added that the rest of the family, including the suspect’s elder brother – a 20-year-old university student – “seemed normal” if “very quiet”.
The family moved to Banks after 11 years in the Welsh capital, where the suspect and his brother were born.
A man living at a two-bedroom home in Cardiff where the family most recently lived said: “Obviously something has gone seriously wrong with this young man. It is a shock – such a terrible thing to happen.”
Meanwhile, a former next door neighbour said: “The youngest child was very quiet, an introvert. He was quite clingy to his mum while his older brother was more boisterous and would stick his tongue out at you.
“(His parents) were an ordinary couple struggling to make a go of things here. I would speak to them over the garden fence but didn’t get to know them well. The eldest boy would be kicking footballs, running around screaming. But the youngest was quiet, he was very young.”
As a five-year-old, the suspect went to sports classes with his father.
A former trainer at the classes said the boy was “normal” for his age and continued to train for three months even after his father fell out with club leaders.
He recalled: “He was a good child, a normal child, who had lots of energy.”
“I’m sad to hear what has happened. It makes me worry about my grandchildren and great-grandchildren with all the knife crime around these days.”
A former neighbour said the boy was livelier when with his older brother.
She added: “They were nice children. They were boys at the age where they were bouncing off the walls – always running around screaming and playing football in the garden. They were a nice family.”
The woman said she did not ask the suspect’s parents about their backgrounds because it was soon after the Rwandan civil war in the 1990s.
On Tuesday night the 17-year-old – who is due to turn 18 in a few weeks – remained in police custody. He faces questioning over the three murders plus multiple attempted murders and assaults.