THREE INJURED IN ATTACK HOLD ‘VITAL CLUES ON KILLING’

CRUCIAL clues in the killing of teenager Sait Mboob lie with three other youths who were injured in the same Moss Side attack, police believe.

Detectives consider the two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old injured in the ‘mass disturbance’ – which claimed the talented footballer’s life – to be key witnesses.

But because the three survivors were seriously injured in the incident at Crosshill Street on Tuesday evening, officers are missing key parts of the puzzle. People who knew Sait, who played for Hough End Griffins and lived in Openshaw, say he was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

He and the three surviving victims are said to have been ambushed by an armed group who piled out of expensive cars.

As well as gathering evidence from the scene, officers are now understood to be scouring social media in an effort to establish a link between the victim, the survivors, and any potential suspects as they try and understand whether this was a targeted or random attack. If there was a dispute that led to Sait’s death, police are looking to establish whether it was personal, whether it involved people he was with, or whether – as many believe – he fell victim to a conflict he had no part in.

In a candid admission, Supt David Pester, south Manchester’s most senior officer, said: “We genuinely don’t know what the motive is.

“The investigation is at an early stage, so quite clearly as it progresses I expect we will be in a much stronger position to understand what the motive was and also to identify those responsible.”

Incidents of serious violence and firearms discharges have been a rarity in Moss Side recent years.

However, new faultlines – of the kind typical to many deprived neighbourhoods across the country – have emerged as the gang scene has diminished.

Once serious violence in Moss Side, where it wasn’t the result of a personal dispute, was usually the result of conflict between the longestablished Gooch and Doddington gangs.

But now, conflict is more likely to be between different friendships groups, sometimes of different ethnic backgrounds and from different