The incident took place at Gayton Road, Harrow, while Farhan Mire was on his way home from a friend's house. Two witnesses heard a woman shout for help and a white man jumped out from nowhere and attacked Farhan and kicked him to death. Police arrived within minutes of the assault but the man and the women had ran off.

Farhan was aged 32 at the time of his death. He was married and had arrived in this country alone in 1997. At the time he was killed, Farhan Mire had applied for family reunion, which was in the process of being dealt with by the Home Office.

The Police began an investigation and linked the murder to a white man and woman. The man was arrested on February 18 1999 and subsequently charged with the murder of Farhan Mire. However, the charged suspect was duly discharged on 1 April 1999 because the Crown Prosecution Service believed the case was too weak to bring before a court. The family were not consulted about this and had no indication that this would happen until the night before.

Since this day the family have been dissatisfied with the response from the Metropolitan Police Service. The police have cancelled meetings with the family and no explanation has been provided until months later. DNA-testing for evidence is still incomplete and most importantly the family is still unsure whether the investigation is treating Farhan's death as a racially motivated murder.

Whilst the police have been keeping the family at arm's length, they have spoken at public meetings about the case. On 28 May 1999 the police informed a public meeting that the investigation was hampered because a key witness had gone missing. The family felt that they should have been informed about this news before anyone else.