Gun murders hit 10-year high
GUN murders in Birmingham are at a ten-year high – prompting new demands for cash to fight back against the scourge on our streets.
Figures obtained by the Birmingham Post showed shooting deaths in the city were at levels not seen since 2008.
And the grim statistic was mirrored across the West Midlands, with the regional total in 2018 also the highest for a decade, with almost three months of the year left.
Three people have been shot dead so far in Birmingham this year – and two were killed within days of each other.
University graduate Abdul Rahman Abubaker, 24, was gunned down at a barbecue in Stratford Road, Highgate, in May.
Days later, 22-year-old Taimoor Zaheer was shot dead in a car in Maxwell Avenue, Handsworth.
Then, on August 25, 33-yearold Anthony Sargeant – dubbed “The King of Lee Bank” – was shot outside his mother’s home in Rickman Drive, Lee Bank.
He later died in hospital on August 31.
The gun murder tally – revealed through a Freedom of Information request to West Midlands Police – already matches the 2008 total of three.
Across the West Midlands, there have been five such deaths so far this year – the highest since 2008 when six were recorded.
Marcia Shakespeare, who lost her daughter Letisha in the New Year’s shootings in Aston in 2003, said she believed police cuts were key to the rising death toll.
A total of 2,000 officers have been lost since 2010, according to West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson.
Ms Shakespeare said the loss of manpower was affecting dayto-day crimefighting, including efforts to tackle gun offences.
She said: “A lot of progress has been made, but gun crime is still the highest it’s been for many years.
“It is upsetting to discover gun murders across Birmingham and the West Midlands are at a tenyear high.
“There have been many cuts to the police force across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands and this is having an effect on the police’s ability to tackle crime.
“Police need to be given extra resources to get to grips with gun crime in the city.”
There were six murders in Birmingham in 2003, which included those of Letisha, 17, and her friend Charlene Ellis, 18.
The girls were the innocent victims of a botched machine gun revenge attack in Birchfield Road, Aston, on January 2, 2003.
In 2005, five men, Marcus Ellis, Nathan Martin, Michael Gregory and Rodrigo Simms were all found guilty of the murders and jailed for life.
In the 15 years from 2003 to 2018, 25 people have been killed by guns in Birmingham and 41 across the West Midlands.
Ms Shakespeare has worked tirelessly to combat gang, gun and knife crime since her daughter’s death.
She said: “In my work I try to educate young people about guns, but there are still many youngsters who are making the wrong decisions and are getting involved in gangs and gun crime.
“It can affect any family, as it has proved in my own case.
“I would never have believed in my wildest nightmares that Letisha would be killed by machine-gun fire in Birmingham and yet she was.”
Stark figures have revealed how the loss of 2,000 officers since 2010 was affecting day-to-day crime fighting at West Midlands Police.
In January 2017, the force received 52,648 emergency calls, 12,100 of them in the P1-category – the highest level of call.
Officers attended more than 77 per cent of those calls within 15 minutes.
But that figure fell to 63 per cent by December, when more than 15,000 of the 56,000-plus calls received were rated as the highest priority.
And last month was the worst on record for response times. In September, the force received a total of 65,098 999 calls, of which 16,292 were classed as P1 emergencies. But officers hit the 15-minute deadline in just 52.41 per cent of those cases.