Armed police swoop as Olivia suspects are held
Two arrested in 24 hours as Priti and ex-footballers visit scene
AN ARMED ‘strike team’ swooped on a man suspected of murdering Olivia Pratt-Korbel during a dramatic 24 hours for the investigation.
The 36-year-old was taken in just five hours after her family begged anyone who knew her killer to turn him in.
As he was being quizzed by detectives yesterday, police also arrested another man in Liverpool.
It came as Home Secretary Priti Patel strongly condemned gun violence while visiting the scene of the nine-year- old’s shocking murder. Footballer’s from the city’s Premier league clubs, Liverpool and Everton, also laid flowers.
Residents told of the drama as a dozen armed officers stormed their block of flats to arrest the 36-year-old.
The raid took place at around 10.20pm on Thursday, shortly after Olivia’s family had issued an emotional appeal to anyone with information to ‘please do the right thing’ to bring the little girl’s killer to justice.
The specialist ‘strike team’ from Merseyside Police descended on the flats in Birkdale Court in the city’s Huyton neighbourhood armed with semi-automatic rifles and a battering ram. Residents described sirens and flashing blue lights, and one said: ‘We saw armed police, all in black with balaclavas on and machine guns.
They closed the road off. They were here for about an hour and anyone who came out of their house they would shout at to go back in.’
Later search teams were seen carrying evidence bags and protective forensic suits up a stairwell to one of the flats, while vans from the force’s Matrix anti-gun unit were parked outside.
The arrest was about three miles from where Olivia was gunned down in her own home by a masked hitman on Monday. She was shot in the chest after the balaclava-clad gunman and former heroin dealer Joseph Nee – whom he was trying to shoot – barged into her home.
The innocent family had no connection to the gangsters and Olivia’s mother Cheryl had only opened the front door after hearing the commotion outside. She desperately tried to barricade it shut but was shot in the wrist by the bullet that then hit her daughter. Two more bullets were fired into Nee, 35, before the gunman fled.
Merseyside Police said yesterday: ‘We have arrested a 36 year- old man on suspicion of the murder of nine year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel. The man, who is from the Huyton area, was also arrested on two counts of attempted murder.’
There was further drama yesterday as officers swooped on a man in a blue T-shirt in nearby Dovecot just before 4pm.
A witness said: ‘They put him in the back of an unmarked police car and then the Matrix vans arrived and he was moved into one of the vans.’ One resident said the arrested man was a ‘known face’ locally, and another source said: ‘The man they arrested is related to the first suspect.’
Despite the developments, police said they still needed help from the public ‘as much as ever’. They issued a photograph of the Audi Q3 which was used to take injured Nee to hospital after he was picked up by two associates when he staggered out from Olivia’s address.
Detective Superintendent Mark Baker said: ‘Whatever information you have, and whether you are sure that it is the same vehicle or not, pass it on and we will assess its importance.’ Meanwhile, the Home Secretary visited the scene of the tragedy on Kingsheath Avenue with Merseyside’s chief constable Serena Kennedy and Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell. The Home Office has announced Merseyside Police will get an extra £350,000 to focus on ‘getting weapons off the streets’ and tackling organised crime.
Miss Patel said: ‘There’s a lot of policing activity, and a lot of national support going into the current operation. I have been working very much with the mayor of Liverpool and the police chief to provide a lot of additional support.’
Miss Patel is yet to meet Olivia’s family but said she is ‘getting in contact’ with them and said her thoughts are with them at this ‘really devastating and sad time’.
Former Liverpool FC striker Ian Rush and ex-Everton player Ian Snodin also visited Kingsheath Avenue and left flowers on behalf of the Merseyside football clubs. On
‘Our city stands united’
the flowers from Everton, a message read: ‘RIP Olivia. No words will lessen the pain or explain such a tragedy. Our city stands united. Forever in our thoughts.’
A card on the floral tribute from Liverpool FC said: ‘Rest in peace, Olivia, with deepest sympathy from all of us at Liverpool Football Club. You’ll Never Walk Alone.’
In their public appeal on Thursday, Olivia’s devastated family urged anyone with information on the killer to ‘speak up’, adding: ‘It is not about being a “snitch” or a “grass”, it is about finding out who took our baby away from us.’