Facebook: @livecoventry Teen shot neighbour at close range, jury hears
JURY TOLD OF ALLEGED CLASH BETWEEN GANG ‘ASSOCIATES’ CAUGHT ON CCTV
AN 18-year-old took a shotgun and blasted his next door neighbour in an effort to kill him, a court has heard.
Pray Maphosa and Bailey Atkinson were said to be “associates” of the well-known C2 gang in Coventry, as well as living next door to each other in the city.
However, on the night of September 2 last year an argument between the two resulted in Maphosa brandishing a shotgun and trying to kill Mr Atkinson, a jury was told at Warwick Crown Court.
It is alleged that Maphosa, 18, fled the scene in Pinley Fields, Stoke Aldermoor, within minutes of the attack while Mr Atkinson, also 18, was left “shedding blood” from his arm.
His “severe” injuries eventually needed surgery in hospital.
Maphosa was arrested nine days later and charged with attempted murder and possession of a shotgun with intent to cause fear of violence, both of which he has denied.
Opening the case, prosecutor Peter Grieves-smith said the background to the shooting was based in gang violence in Coventry.
He said both Maphosa and Mr Atkinson were “associates” of the C2 gang which is mainly based around the Wood End area and is known to have been in “conflict” with rival gang RB7.
Mr Grieves-smith said: “Both gangs are involved in violent crime directed towards each other. That crime has involved firearms-related incidents – some towards premises and some towards people.”
He said it was “this ongoing dispute” that allowed Maphosa to “take possession of a lethal weapon at such short notice”.
The court was told that both the defendant and Mr Atkinson had previously both been the victims of stabbings, but had refused to help police with their investigations.
The prosecutor said: “Pray Maphosa believed no witness would speak to the police and say what had happened. But Pray Maphosa did not take in to account that there was a CCTV camera opposite which captured the shooting.”
Mr Grieves-smith said police officers who know the defendant “very well” have identified Maphosa from the CCTV footage.
The jury was shown CCTV footage from Pinley Fields that night which showed a taxi pulling up outside a property in the street and a man – which it is agreed was Maphosa – getting into the taxi before it drives off.
Mr Grieves-smith said the taxi took
him to an address elsewhere in the city before returning to Pinley Fields, with Maphosa now carrying a bag which he took inside his house.
The prosecutor said the footage then shows an argument between Maphosa and Mr Atkinson, before Maphosa eventually brings a gun outside, adding: “He aimed it at Bailey Atkinson who was just a few feet away.”
The jury was told a “flash” can be seen on the footage when the gun is fired and a third man who was in the area at the time is seen “retreating across the street”.
Mr Grieves-smith said Maphosa returned inside his house. Mr Atkinson did the same while “shedding blood” from the wound. The latter was eventually taken to hospital with “severe injuries” which required surgery.
“Within 20 minutes of the shooting, the defendant had left the area,” said Mr Grieves-smith.
“His phone was using a phone mast some distance from Pinley Fields and he didn’t return to that area until the following day.”
He told the court the weapon involved was never recovered and neither was clothing worn by Maphosa that evening.
When arrested and interviewed by police on September 11 last year, Maphosa, whose address was given to the court as Hamilton Road in Worcester, answered “no comment” to all questions asked.
Mr Grieves-smith said that in his defence statement prepared for the court, Maphosa said he got in the taxi that night and collected clothing from another address before returning to Pinley Fields and then having a shower.
In his statement, Maphosa said he “heard a commotion and didn’t know what was going on” and left the house via the back door “to avoid any problems”.
He also stated that he did not shoot Mr Atkinson.
The prosecutor told the jury Maphosa travelled in the taxi to “get something other than clothing” that evening and examination of the CCTV footage throughout that whole day shows that none of the other people going in and out of that house match the description of the shooter, other than Maphosa.
He ended his speech by telling the jury: “You can be sure that when you fire (a gun) at such close range it was done with an intent to kill.
“It was Bailey Atkinson’s good fortune that he was hit in the arm, but it was Pray Maphosa’s intention to kill him.”
The trial continues.