Two arrests after boy, 6, shot in ‘gang crossfire’

POLICE have arrested two people after a six year-old boy was injured in the crossfire of a suspected gang feud.

He was playing with a friend and his brother in the front garden of their home in Wolverhampton at 4pm on Good Friday when armed men rushed down the street.

His father Abdurahaman Tukaalesharif, 48, said: ‘His brother who is 14 spotted four men who looked mixed-race and one of them had a balaclava. They were chasing some other man with a shotgun.

‘He told his younger brother to get in the house as he knew something wasn’t right.

‘They saw my boys get in the house then fired a shot at them and the bullets went through the door and got my youngest son.’

The boy suffered wounds to his back and hand and was last night in a ‘stable’ condition in hospital.

Mr Tukaalesharif, who was born in Somalia, said: ‘My son is waiting for an operation to remove the bullets.

‘I think they mistook my sons for someone else. My boys have never seen a gun before, they were so scared.’

A neighbour said: ‘I heard two loud bangs and then three guys wearing balaclavas came into the street and I saw one put a gun into a bag... I’ve heard that a woman chased them in a car.’

Police have arrested a 17-year-old and a 24-year-old on suspicion of wounding.

The shooting came 18 months after a boy aged 14 was stabbed in the same street and a day after a 28-year-old was shot dead in nearby Birmingham.