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Father and daughter, 7, killed in shooting
No clear motive after victims were shot dead at home on street called 'murder mile' of Britain's gun crime epidemic are shot dead at home on street called 'murder mile'
By Terri Judd
15 September 2003
A seven-year-old girl and her father were shot and killed at a flat in north-west London yesterday. Police investigating the murders, in an area notorious for drug-related violence, said they were unsure about the motive for the attack.
Detectives were continuing to search for the girl's mother and have not ruled out the possibility that the two victims may have died in a domestic dispute. None of the family has been named.
The man, 41, and his daughter died in hospital shortly after they were found suffering from gunshot wounds at a flatin Harrow Road, Kensal Green.
The street has been called "murder mile" as a result of Yardie shootings linked to the Jamaican gangsters who control much of London's drug trade. The area has repeatedly been the subject of investigations by Scotland Yard's Operation Trident, a division dedicated to tackling black-on-black gun crime.
Detective Chief Inspector Richard Freeman said: "We have to keep an open mind as the inquiry is at a very early stage.Clearly this is a very serious incident, but undue speculation is unhelpful at this early stage.
"We have not ruled out any line of inquiry - crime, domestic, or any other motive. It is simply too early to say why this tragedy occurred."
Officers entered the two-room bedsit shortly after midnight yesterday after receiving reports of a disturbance from neighbours, including Saleha Shaikh, 36, who lives next door.
"Three times I heard what I thought was a woman or girl calling out," she said. "At first it was scared crying and afterwards it was from pain.
"I heard something thrown against the wall, like a heavy object and crying like someone was in danger. There was the sound of someone running up and down stairs and then it went quiet."
Police arrived within minutes at the ground-floor flat in a three-storey Victorian terraced house, where they found the man and his daughter mortally wounded.
"The ambulance man, poor man, was holding her really lovingly but her head was very limp. We kind of knew she was not alive. It was horrible," said one young woman, who did not wish to be identified.
Minutes later the girl's father was brought out on a stretcher with a heavily bandaged chest. Both were taken to different hospitals in west London where they later died from their injuries.
It is believed that shortly before the murder, the father had allowed someone "he welcomed and trusted" into the flat who proceeded to fire four bullets. "From the position of the bodies, it is quite possible the girl walked in and was caught in the cross-fire," a police source said.
The source added that the most probable motives for the shooting appeared to be either domestic or drugs related.
The death of such a young girl is bound to reignite the debate about Britain's increasingly pervasive gun culture. Since the start of the year, officers working for Operation Trident have investigated more than 100 shootings, including 11 murders, in the capital. A total of 94 firearms and more than 1,900 rounds of ammunition have been seized since January.
Demands for stricter gun controls have intensified this year in the wake of the shootings in Birmingham of Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17. The cousins died after being caught in a gun battle between rival gangs outside a New Year party in the Aston area of the city.
Yesterday, neighbours said that the "pleasant" little Afro-Caribbean girl had spentweekends with her father in the housing association flat. One woman, who was too afraid to give her name, said: "There were a lot of comings and going in the middle of the night. I think it was because of drugs."
Another neighbour, Kenneth Thorpe, 20, said: "It was a probation hostel for people who have just been released from prison. There is a lot of trouble there. There is always police going there."
Local people described the father as a big man with short dreadlocks and a "big gold watch" who spoke with a Jamaican patois. There had been many complaints about him parking his car on the pavement since he moved in four months ago.
Police officers cordoned off the street yesterday while they, carried out fingertip searches, looked through nearby gardens and rubbish bins and conducted house-to-house inquiries as part of the double murder investigation. Half a dozen witnesses were also being questioned and post-mortem examinations were performed on the victims.
A local resident, Jonathan Davis, 30, an IT operations manager, said: "They call this murder mile. This area quite frequently has police around it and I think there is a lot of crime but it doesn't touch most of the residents. It is very unusual for a family to be affected."
Mrs Shaikh added: "My children find it really scary. They are saying, 'mum, mum can't we move?' I would like to move as well."
© 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
No clear motive after victims were shot dead at home on street called 'murder mile' of Britain's gun crime epidemic are shot dead at home on street called 'murder mile'
By Terri Judd
15 September 2003
A seven-year-old girl and her father were shot and killed at a flat in north-west London yesterday. Police investigating the murders, in an area notorious for drug-related violence, said they were unsure about the motive for the attack.
Detectives were continuing to search for the girl's mother and have not ruled out the possibility that the two victims may have died in a domestic dispute. None of the family has been named.
The man, 41, and his daughter died in hospital shortly after they were found suffering from gunshot wounds at a flatin Harrow Road, Kensal Green.
The street has been called "murder mile" as a result of Yardie shootings linked to the Jamaican gangsters who control much of London's drug trade. The area has repeatedly been the subject of investigations by Scotland Yard's Operation Trident, a division dedicated to tackling black-on-black gun crime.
Detective Chief Inspector Richard Freeman said: "We have to keep an open mind as the inquiry is at a very early stage.Clearly this is a very serious incident, but undue speculation is unhelpful at this early stage.
"We have not ruled out any line of inquiry - crime, domestic, or any other motive. It is simply too early to say why this tragedy occurred."
Officers entered the two-room bedsit shortly after midnight yesterday after receiving reports of a disturbance from neighbours, including Saleha Shaikh, 36, who lives next door.
"Three times I heard what I thought was a woman or girl calling out," she said. "At first it was scared crying and afterwards it was from pain.
"I heard something thrown against the wall, like a heavy object and crying like someone was in danger. There was the sound of someone running up and down stairs and then it went quiet."
Police arrived within minutes at the ground-floor flat in a three-storey Victorian terraced house, where they found the man and his daughter mortally wounded.
"The ambulance man, poor man, was holding her really lovingly but her head was very limp. We kind of knew she was not alive. It was horrible," said one young woman, who did not wish to be identified.
Minutes later the girl's father was brought out on a stretcher with a heavily bandaged chest. Both were taken to different hospitals in west London where they later died from their injuries.
It is believed that shortly before the murder, the father had allowed someone "he welcomed and trusted" into the flat who proceeded to fire four bullets. "From the position of the bodies, it is quite possible the girl walked in and was caught in the cross-fire," a police source said.
The source added that the most probable motives for the shooting appeared to be either domestic or drugs related.
The death of such a young girl is bound to reignite the debate about Britain's increasingly pervasive gun culture. Since the start of the year, officers working for Operation Trident have investigated more than 100 shootings, including 11 murders, in the capital. A total of 94 firearms and more than 1,900 rounds of ammunition have been seized since January.
Demands for stricter gun controls have intensified this year in the wake of the shootings in Birmingham of Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17. The cousins died after being caught in a gun battle between rival gangs outside a New Year party in the Aston area of the city.
Yesterday, neighbours said that the "pleasant" little Afro-Caribbean girl had spentweekends with her father in the housing association flat. One woman, who was too afraid to give her name, said: "There were a lot of comings and going in the middle of the night. I think it was because of drugs."
Another neighbour, Kenneth Thorpe, 20, said: "It was a probation hostel for people who have just been released from prison. There is a lot of trouble there. There is always police going there."
Local people described the father as a big man with short dreadlocks and a "big gold watch" who spoke with a Jamaican patois. There had been many complaints about him parking his car on the pavement since he moved in four months ago.
Police officers cordoned off the street yesterday while they, carried out fingertip searches, looked through nearby gardens and rubbish bins and conducted house-to-house inquiries as part of the double murder investigation. Half a dozen witnesses were also being questioned and post-mortem examinations were performed on the victims.
A local resident, Jonathan Davis, 30, an IT operations manager, said: "They call this murder mile. This area quite frequently has police around it and I think there is a lot of crime but it doesn't touch most of the residents. It is very unusual for a family to be affected."
Mrs Shaikh added: "My children find it really scary. They are saying, 'mum, mum can't we move?' I would like to move as well."
© 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
