LAW OF THE GUN
New demand for extra armed police after three days of violence leaves public in fear
EXTRA police officers supported by armed units were ordered on to the streets yesterday after an unprecedented Bank Holiday weekend of violence.
Five people were killed and at least six injured as a spate of shootings and stabbings swept the country.
Last night, armed officers were shot at in Oxford and returned fire at a gunman before laying siege to a house in the centre of the university city.
Yesterday saw one of the bloodiest three-day spells on record draw to a close and led to calls for more armed police to be deployed in Britain’s gun crime hotspots. Ex-MP and anti-knife campaigner Nick de Bois, who sits on the Government’s new antiviolent crime task force, called for more officers with weapons in the UK’s high crime areas.
He said: “We should be prepared to deploy such
resources in hotspots where gun crime is prevalent.”
The Tory politician added that priority should be given to tackling drugs and the gangs pushing them – reportedly the source of much of the violence.
The calls came after six shootings and six stabbings took place in London, Liverpool, Luton, Macclesfield and Oxford between Saturday and las night.
Yesterday there were more armed police patrols mingling with Bank Holiday crowds at seaside resorts like Brighton.
And the distraught mother of a youngster gunned down and killed in Southwark, south London, called for an end to the bloodshed.
Priority
Pretana Morgan, whose 17-year-old son Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton was shot dead on Saturday, said: “Let my son be the last and be an example to everyone. Just let it stop. What must be, must be.”
She added: “It’s not about race, it’s not about nation, it’s not about culture.
“Nothing. It’s just a human race.
“Just one human race. So children, please let my son be the last.”
Her words were echoed by Tottenham MP David Lammy, who said: “Enough, enough.
“My heart goes out to families grieving children and teenagers. So many shattered lives, families and communities.”
Across the city, a 43-year-old man was stabbed in Ealing, west London, after a motoring dispute on a residential street on Saturday night.
Scotland Yard said the victim, who was in a stable condition in hospital yesterday, was believed to have been attacked after criticising the driving of the suspect, who then drove away.
The violence continued with a 22-year-old man shot on Sunday night in south-east London.
He suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the shooting in New Cross Road, Lewisham, at about 6.30pm and no arrests have been made.
Two stabbings took place in Luton on Sunday, with a 20-yearold man knifed to death and another man left with serious but non-life-threatening leg injuries after an unconnected incident.
Two teenage boys, one aged just 13, were shot in broad daylight in Harrow, north-west London.
It emerged yesterday that the 13-year-old, who had been at a wedding, was hit in the head when a drug deal on a busy suburban street went wrong.
Police said the “innocent bystander” was walking with his parents when he was hit on the back of the head by stray shotgun pellets.
A gunman had unleashed two shots as he fired across the street at a 15-year-old boy he had met for a Sunday lunchtime drug deal.
The 13-year-old was tended to by shocked passers-by outside Specsavers on Wealdstone High Street in north-west London before armed police arrived.
Both boys are being treated in hospital.
Harrow Borough Commander Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose said: “This was a callous, reckless and brazen act, without any thought by those responsible for the fact that there were families with children and people in the high street enjoying their weekend. This was quite simply appalling.”
A 39-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and has now been released under investigation.
Fatah Warsame, 20, from Cardiff, died after being stabbed in Liverpool city centre early on Sunday morning. And 53-year-old known gangland fixer John Kinsella was also gunned down in St Helens, Merseyside.
A man aged 37 was stabbed to death in Macclesfield, Cheshire,
on Sunday night. A 15-year-old boy and a 29-year-old man have been arrested. In Leytonstone, east London, a man aged in his late teens or early 20s was stabbed but his condition is not known.
Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Messinger added officers were using search powers to seize knives.Mr Messinger, the Southwark Borough Commander, covering the area where Rhyhiem was gunned down, said the violence had “rightly caused concern” and said the “fast-paced” investigation was “progressing all the time”.
He said additional officers would be on patrol, supported by armed response officers on motorcycles, along with dog units and air support.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also said his thoughts went out to the “loved ones of the teenager who was tragically killed”.
He refused to take any blame for the violence, claiming it was the fault of the Government after cuts to police funding.
Mr Khan said: “Keeping Londoners safe is my top priority.
“I remain in constant contact with the Metropolitan Police and am reassured that they are doing everything they can to bring those responsible to justice and to keep us all safe.Violent crime has been rising across the country since 2014 and the Government is failing in their basic duty to keep people safe.”
Official statistics released in April showed the number of homicides in London had surged by 44 per cent in the past year.
In the first 100 days of 2018 alone, 52 people were killed in London, raising serious concerns about how to tackle violent crime on the city’s streets.
Stabbing was the main cause, though many also died from gunshot wounds.
Eleven of those killed were teenagers, but almost as many were in their 40s.
The majority of victims were men, and while the borough of Haringey had the most incidents with five, people have been killed right across the city.