Police chief calls on community to help tackle violent crime
News Reporter COVENTRY’S top cop has called on the community to help officers prevent violent crime as the force works to solve a triple shooting in the city.
The attack took place outside a Chinese takeaway in Far Gosford Street three weeks ago, with a masked gunman opening fire with a longbarrelled weapon.
All of the victims have since recovered after receiving hospital treatment at the time but no arrests have been made to date and the investigation remains live.
Chief Superintendent Mike O’hara sent out his message as he spoke at the launch of an anti-knife crime video at Finham Park 2 school in Tile Hill.
He said: “We have seen a twenty per cent reduction in violence affecting anyone under the age of twenty-five in the city and we have seen a thirty per cent reduction in knife crime.
“Firearms incidents are still really rare but understandably people are really worried about them because they are high profile and they are potentially fatal.
“The challenge for me is to get the intelligence I need and for the community to tell me what they know because nine times out of ten somebody knows that somebody else is carrying a weapon, whether that be a knife or a gun, but they still don’t trust me or trust the police or have enough confidence in the police service to tell us about it.
“So I really need the community and young people to feel confident enough to tell us what they know before a serious injury takes place.”
Chief Supt O’hara spoke as he met five Finham Park 2 students who took part in the video and presented each of the teenagers with a Chief Constable’s Young Person’s Award recognising their contribution to the fight against knife crime.
Asked by the Telegraph whether the force had encountered barriers in trying to identify the suspects in the Far Gosford Street shooting, he said officers had obtained a large amount of intelligence and were working to catch the perpetrators.
Chief Supt O’hara replied: “The offenders were masked and we have CCTV, but the challenge with CCTV is sometimes it can be really good quality, other times less so.
“We are working on the investigation, we have got lots of intelligence that we are working on at the moment and we will progress the investigation as quickly as we can to bring the offenders to justice.”
The gunman opened fire on a group of youths standing outside the Chinese Kitchen on Thursday, September 17. One resident described how two men blocked the street off with a car before one ran along the road and opened fire at around 10.15pm.
At the time, Coventry Police Chief Inspector Paul Minor condemned the act of “outrageous violence” and said the force was doing everything it could to catch those responsible.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police via Live Chat or call 101 quoting log number 4989 of 17 September.
Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.