As boy, 14, is shot dead, YouTube still allows gangs to boast online
Despair of his family as they agree to shut off life support
WARRING gangs linked to the killing of a 14-year-old boy are glorifying violence and guns in videos watched by hundreds of thousands online.
Videos on YouTube show masked members of the Woodgrange E7 gang and the rival Beckton E6 crew rapping about gang rivalry and ‘shooting to kill’.
A feud between the gangs, based in east London, is believed to have led to the shooting of schoolboy Corey Junior Davis next to a playground in Forest Gate on Monday.
His family made the heartbreaking decision to switch off his life support machine on Tuesday night after he suffered catastrophic injuries from a shotgun blast to the head.
Corey, who has been linked to the Woodgrange group, was shot from behind at close range by a masked gunman in what locals believe was a revenge attack arranged by the E6 gang after the stabbing of an 18-year-old during a mass brawl at the nearby Westfield shopping centre on Friday.
It comes after Google, which owns YouTube, was accused last month of putting lives at stake and ‘glamorising gang culture’ for refusing more than half of police requests to remove gang videos inciting knife and gun crime in London from the videosharing website.
Since 2015, YouTube has taken down only 38 per cent of videos reported to it by the Metropolitan Police. Following Monday’s murder, the Daily Mail found chilling YouTube videos produced by the two gangs in which members drink, smoke marijuana and rap about violence while making hand gestures resembling punching and shooting.
None of the videos found by the Mail appeared to have linked advertising. But if any other videos do, it could mean gangsters could earn an estimated £5,000 a month from the adverts, from which Google also benefits.
On Monday afternoon, Corey was targeted as he sat near a playground on an estate. Another 17-year- old was left with ‘life-changing’ injuries after being shot in the leg.
A shop worker said his friend had been with Corey when the gunman opened fire.
‘They were just sitting there talking, and then this guy just came from behind and shot him,’ he said. ‘ Fourteen years old, what can you do to get shot in the head with a shotgun?’
A resident said: ‘The shooting was outside the playground. I heard the noise from my house – pow, pow, it was twice.
‘The boy couldn’t talk, he was just laying down breathing hard. I didn’t want to look at him because I saw too much blood.’
Yesterday, Corey’s mother Keisha McLeod, 39, a council tax officer, and his sister Roshane, 23, were too devastated to speak. Miss McLeod describes her two children as her ‘pride and joy’ on her Facebook page.
Her father Neville McLeod, 75, who lived with Corey, nicknamed CJ, at his terraced home in Forest Gate, described his grandson as a ‘ lovely boy’ and urged youngsters to stop carrying weapons. He told the London Evening Standard: ‘There is nothing bad you could say about CJ. He was a lovely boy.
‘He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He never kept bad company, so we just have no idea why this has happened.
‘That day he left in the morning like he always did and said, “Goodbye grandad, I will see you later.” He got up in the morning like he always did, had his breakfast, but didn’t come home.’
Mr McLeod added: ‘I’m feeling devastated, the whole family is. These people don’t care, they go around with these weapons.
‘I want to say to these people, stop it. Why do people have to go around carrying knives, guns, shooting and killing people?
‘There’s no reason for it. Why do they have to do it? They act like life is cheap. CJ did nothing to deserve this.’ There has been a surge in gun crime in the capital over the past year. The Metropolitan Police revealed there was a 42 per cent increase in gun offences in the year to April – up to 2,544 compared with 1,793 between April 2015 and 2016.
On Monday, a boy of 17 was charged with causing grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon in relation to the shopping centre brawl.
Regarding the shooting of Corey and his friend, police are trying to trace a vehicle seen leaving the scene.
Detective Chief Inspector David Whellams said: ‘We are working tirelessly to work through the evidence and piece together the events which led to
‘Wrong place at the wrong time’ ‘They act like life is cheap’
Corey’s murder. I am specifically appealing for information about a large, light-coloured 4x4-type vehicle seen leaving the scene immediately after the shooting.’
A YouTube spokesman said they have specialists around the world removing content that breaks their rules, adding: ‘While YouTube is a platform for free and creative expression, we strictly prohibit videos that are abusive or promote violence.
‘We work closely with organisations like the Met Police to understand where artistic expression escalates into real threats. We’re committed to improving our work on this issue to make sure YouTube is not a place for those who seek to do harm.’