Police are bracing themselves for a renewed gang war on the streets of Manchester after a teenage boy was gunned down in a car outside a suburban pub.
Giuseppe Gregory, 16, was shot in the head and killed by a guman who sprayed bullets as the green VW Golf was being driven out of The Robin Hood pub car park, in Stretford, shortly before midnight on Sunday.
It is the first fatal shooting since Greater Manchester Police launched its much heralded Operation Cougar to crack down on gun-related crime in gangster-ridden areas of the city more than a year ago.
Officers now fear that the shooting, a short distance from the home turf of several notorious gangs, could prompt a fresh violence. It later emerged that the teenage victim was once shot in the leg outside the Apollo Theatre near his home in Ardwick when he was aged 13.
RELATED LINKS
Police believe he was among a crowd of friends attending a regular music event at the sprawling red-brick pub earlier in the day. Officers suggested the shooting could have been the result of an argument or event inside the pub.
Residents in nearby streets heard what they initially thought was fireworks going off at 11.50pm.
Police raced to the scene only to discover that the three men sharing the victim’s car had driven him to Trafford General Hospital. He died later at around 2.30am.
The gunman is thought to have arrived at the pub car park in a taxi. Police want to know about the movements of a silver Honda Accord private hire taxi.
Three men, aged 18, 20 and 22, were arrested on suspicion of murder but last night only one remained in custody.
Residents, who complain that the area is a known haunt for drug dealers, said that they heard up to five shots but few ventured out to investigate.
Sean Kelly, 40, said: “My daughter and I heard the ’pops’. We thought it was fireworks going off in the car park. We did not go out because there are often gangs of kids out there. We did not know there was something like this going on at the time.
“I was going to log a disturbance with the police in the afternoon because there was so much noise”.
Today it remained cordoned as forensic officers carried out their work. A small pile of floral tributes began to accumulate across the road.
Greater Manchester Police recently hailed a breakthrough against gun crime with the jailing of the leaders and lieutenants of the Gooch Gang, one of the UK’s most notorious gangs.
Colin Joyce, 29, the self-styled gang’s general, was jailed for at least 39 years.
Once the main players had been rounded up, GMP undertook one of the most intensive and sustained police operations in recent years. Operation Cougar, designed to take guns off the streets, has been running since February last year.
Officers from the Xcalibre unit would descend in overwhelming numbers without warning to arrest youths targeted by plain-clothed police patrolling in unmarked cars.
After the conviction of 11 members of the gang Peter Fahy, the chief constable, lauded a reduction in gang related shootings. There had not been a single firearms homicide in Greater Manchester over the past year, for the first time in a decade.
Gang-related firearms discharges had fallen by 92 per cent over the same period.Chief Superintendent Janette McCormick, Trafford divisional commander, said that police and the community had worked hard to eradicate gun crime. Confidence has returned to the area and they did not want to loss that now, she said. “Giuseppe was only 16. We are very much focused on finding out who has done this and what the motive is,” she added.
“We are doing all we can, but we need your help.
“This pub holds a music event every Sunday night. There are people who attend it regularly and I am sure were there last night. It is those people who go week-in, week-out who may know who is behind this. I am urging them to do the right thing and come forward.”
No comments:
Post a Comment