‘Tanesha was just an innocent child caught up in a stupid postcode war’
Friends say 17-year-old shot dead in drive-by may have strayed into crossfire of London gang rivalry
THE 17-year-old girl killed in a drive-by shooting on Easter Monday was described by close friends yesterday as “just an innocent child caught up in this stupid postcode war”.
The death of Tanesha Melbourne capped a terrifying weekend of violence on London’s streets, with three people murdered and three left fighting for their lives after being stabbed or shot. While Tanesha lay dying in Tottenham, a 16-year-old was battling to survive after being shot in the face in Walthamstow, a few miles away. Police last night said the teenager had died.
Family and friends of Miss Melbourne said the attacks were being driven by tit-for-tat killings in which gangs were “keeping score” on social media sites of shootings and stabbings.
One possible explanation for Tanesha’s murder was that a gang from a neighbouring area had taken revenge after one of their members was beaten up in a fast-food restaurant. Footage of the incident was uploaded to social me- dia. A total of 22 people were murdered across the capital in March, thought to be one of the bloodiest months for more than a decade. The murder rate is said to have exceeded New York’s.
In the first three months of the year, 45 people were murdered in London, with 2018 set to rival 2003 – in which 203 people were killed – as the bloodiest on record. A Scotland Yard spokesman said murder rates were not collected on a month-by-month basis, making it impossible to say if last month had been the worst ever.
Tanesha was chatting with friends in the street just yards from her home when she was shot in the chest as a car drove past just after 9.30pm. Paramedics tried for more than an hour to keep her alive but she died at the scene in Chalgrove Road. It is understood that Tanesha’s mother, Sharon Melbourne, was present when her daughter died.
Later, she left a message with flowers close by that read: “To my baby Nesha, I’m going to miss you so much. You’re always going to be with me everywhere I go. Love mummy.”
Kathleen Kingdom, Tanesha’s grandmother, said: “I’m still trying to process what’s happened. I’m so raw. She was a happy girl, with lots of friends. She never got into trouble. She didn’t have any bad friends.”
A friend of Miss Melbourne said: “Tanesha was just an innocent child caught up in this stupid postcode war.” The mother of one of Tanesha’s friends said her daughter came running home to tell her the 17-year-old had been shot barely 100 yards away.
The woman, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, said: “The first I heard was a knock on the door from one of my girls saying, ‘Mum, Tanesha’s been shot’.”
The 43-year-old mother-of-six said she ran out and found Tanesha lying on the pavement. “They put her in the recovery position,” she said. “I couldn’t see any blood. I couldn’t see where she was hurt. Her eyes were open and she was shallow breathing. We thought she was having a fit.”
First on the scene were armed police, followed by paramedics.
The woman added: “I spoke to a young lady who said a car had come up and fired shots. A bullet even went through a neighbour’s window and they rang police straight away.”
Tanesha had spent the earlier part of the day at the local youth centre, where she was a mentor to younger children. She was a popular girl, who had never been in any trouble, said friends.
Police said they were keeping an “open mind” to the motive but friends suggested she had been caught up in the crossfire of local gang rivalry between youths in Tottenham, neighbouring Wood Green and Edmonton.
The family friend said: “We’re in the middle of a war zone here. There’s social media, with these kids writing things against each other, provoking each other about what they’ve done.”
On Twitter, a young woman claimed that gangs were posting killings on social media sites. She wrote: “There is a scoreboard & all of these London gangs are taking notes of who splashes/ smokes [stabs/shoots] who, so they can add it to their scoreboard.”
‘There is a scoreboard and all of these gangs are taking notes of who stabs or shoots who’