Councillors’ fears over response to gun attacks
ARE PUTTING PUBLIC AT RISK
A SUMMIT meeting between police and councillors is to be held after a spate of shootings in Salford.
Councillors fear GMP may not have the resources to pick up intelligence about gun crime before it happens after years of cutbacks.
There have been three incidents in little more than a week.
Now six councillors from the Ordsall and Langworthy wards, where the attacks happened, will meet with police.
Veteran Langworthy politician Coun John Warmisham said: “We will be having a meeting this or next week. We are very concerned about the incidents.
“Both wards are growing in terms of population and boundary changes and our fear is that they are not getting adequate policing.
“After years of cutbacks our concern is that policing is at such a level public safety is being put at risk.”
Detectives have linked two of the incidents, which both happened in the early hours of May 18.
In the first, a distraction grenade was lobbed at a house in Beech Lawn Close in Langworthy.
Just 50 minutes later, several shots were fired at a house in Quayview, a cul-de-sac off Eccles New Road, near Salford Quays.
Men aged 20, 22, and 26 were held on suspicion of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. They have all been bailed until June 17.
Detectives are linking the two incidents and have described them as ‘targeted’ attacks.
A third shooting in Salford on May 22 is being linked to a feud between ‘two organised crime gangs.’
In that case, a man has been arrested after a gunman fired shots through the window of a house, injuring a man inside.
A 26-year-old was taken to hospital after the attack in Ordsall. His injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.
Shots were fired through an open window on Cloughfield Avenue at around 10.30pm.
The gunman ran to a waiting getaway car on nearby Robert Hall Street. Police can only say the car was white.
A 37-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. He has been released under investigation.
Police say the Ordsall incident is being linked to two feuding gangs.
Chief Supt Wayne Miller, head of Salford police, said of the Cloughfield Avenue, shooting: “We believe this incident was between two organised crime groups and that it was targeted.”
He added: “We have increased reassurance patrols and also increased our armed response.”
In relation to the cause of the shootings, Chief Supt Miller said: “We are working closely with Salford council and other partners as part of our enquiries.”