JULY 2007 - SUMMARY

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• Gun Deaths and Injuries - During July five male victims died in shooting attacks in London and Manchester.  Four of the fatal shootings occurred in London: a 16-year-old was shot dead by a gang on bicycles in Stockwell, a man was shot in the street in Woolwich and two men died after attacks at clubs, one in Wandsworth, in which a bouncer was also injured, the other in which the murdered man was a bouncer in the Fulham Road.  In Manchester, a drive-by shooting in Chorlton-on-Medlock claimed the life of one man and another man was injured: they were at the wake of a shooting victim who was killed in Manchester in June.

• A teenager died after being shot in the head by a friend whilst they were out shooting on farmland in Southease (East Sussex).

• There were a number of other incidents in which victims were injured by gunfire.  Two men were injured in double shootings in which the other victim was killed (in Wandsworth and Chorlton-on-Medlock, see above).  There were other shootings which resulted in injury.

  • In Manchester there were three more teenage shooting victims, two aged 16 and another aged 14: two of the incidents occurred in Hulme and one in Moss Side.  Another teenager escaped injury when shots were fired at him in Old Trafford.  A man was hit in the leg in Blackley.

  • A man and a woman were injured when they were shot in a probable targeted attack in Toxteth (Liverpool).

  • In two drive-by shootings in east London (Bow and Millharbour) two men were injured, one was aged 16.  Another man was injured in a drive-by shooting in Stockport.

  • Two men were shot and injured in an altercation outside a pub in Willenhall (West Midlands) during which another man was stabbed.  One man was shot in the leg when a group of youths attacked a house in Huddersfield.  In Lancashire a man was found with a leg injury after being shot in Fishwick (Preston).

• Armed Hold-Ups and Assaults - There were reports of armed robberies and attempted armed robberies involving guns on a bank in Paisley, a post office in Newbury (Berkshire), on shops in Filton (Bristol), Wolverhampton and Hungerford (Berkshire) (alleged to have involved a BB gun), at jewellery stores in London and Coulsdon (Surrey), on a takeaway in South Shore (Lancashire), at a bookmakers in Englefield Green (Surrey) and a petrol station in Hazlemere (Buckinghamshire).

• Security guards delivering cash were robbed by armed men in Colchester (Essex) and Worthing (West Sussex).

• A man was robbed of his car after armed men stole his car keys and mobile phone at gunpoint in an attack in Dudley (West Midlands).  An assortment of valuable goods was stolen from a house in Epping (Essex) by two men armed with a handgun.

• A teenager was robbed of headphones in a street in Preston, and in another street robbery a man was held up in Scunthorpe and made to hand over his wallet.  In an incident that took place last month a man and a woman were robbed of various items when they were attacked by a group of men brandishing a silver handgun on the Isle of Dogs (east London).  A woman was forced to hand over her purse by a teenager armed with a black handgun in Orford (Cheshire), although the purse was returned shortly afterwards.

• Other Incidents - Two men were arrested after shots were fired at plain-clothes police officers in Neasden (north west London).

• Information was being sought by police after reports of a gun fight in Harlesden (north west London), and shots were fired at a club in Brixton (south London).  A man was arrested after a gun was fired in Hazelwood near Selby.

• Police were hunting a gunman who attacked a flat in Milton Keynes. 

• A search was made for a man seen with a gun outside a bank in Corwen (Denbighshire).

• Two men have been charged with firearms offences after police raids on a number of properties in Mid Craigie (Dundee).

• Armed police cordoned off a street in Cannock (Staffordshire) in response to reports of a man with a gun (a man was arrested but no firearm was recovered).

• Two men have been charged with firearms offences after police stopped a car full of guns in Burnage (Manchester).

• A woman was arrested and then released without charge after reports of a man entering a property in Hayle (Cornwall) with a firearm.

• Gun Finds and Thefts - A sawn-off shotgun, two high powered air rifles and a ball-bearing gun were part of an arsenal of weapons found with drugs by police in a lock-up garage in Immingham.  A cache of weapons, including a powerful air rifle and parts of a sawn-off shotgun, was found by police in a flat in Renfrew.

• At least 20 decommissioned guns, including shotguns and machine guns, were stolen from a locked van in Paddock Wood (Kent) but recovered by police from the River Cray in Crayford the next day.

• Replica guns were stolen from a house in Northampton along with knives and cowboy clothes.

• Convictions (see also Imitation Guns and Airgun Incidents) - Three men were convicted of murder after a contract shooting in Castlemilk (Glasgow), two were given minimum 25 years sentences.  A fourth man pleaded guilty to culpable homicide and was given a 10 year sentence.

• A man has been jailed for a minimum of 33 years after a gun attack on a club in Park Royal (north-west London) in which one man was killed.

• A 19-year-old has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years for the murder of another teenager in The Meadows (Nottingham).

• A man who shot and injured his love rival with a double-barrelled shotgun at an allotment in Orsett (Essex) has been jailed for eight years (see January 2007 Incidents).  A 20-year-old has been jailed for ten years for the "attempted assassination" of a man whom he injured by firing a sawn-off shotgun outside a pub in Edinburgh.

• A gunman who shot and paralysed a man in Stonebridge (north west London) has been given a minimum 12 year jail sentence.

• Two men have been jailed for 12 years each for smuggling firearms after they were caught at Dover Docks.

• A man will serve a five year sentence for possession a shotgun after an arsenal of weapons and ammunition was found in a flat in Elephant and Castle (south London).  A man from Walker (Tyneside) was jailed for four years after police found a shotgun in a wardrobe at his house, and a woman from South Shields faces a five year sentence after pleading guilty to possessing a self loading shotgun.

• A man has pleaded guilty of possessing a firearm and seven rounds of ammunition.  Police had found a converted handgun between his buttocks after they had stopped his car in Tooting (south London)

• A man admitted charges of assault, grievous bodily harm and possession of a weapon following an incident in Bristol in which he paralysed a man with a stun gun.

• Airguns - The latest victims to be hit in airgun attacks were:

  • A widow in a wheelchair tending her husband's grave in Newark (Nottinghamshire)

  • A teenager in St Ann's (Nottingham) who was shot whilst walking a dog and required hospital treatment

  • Another teenager at work on scaffolding in Eaton Socon (Cambridgeshire)

  • Two people, one of them a 13-year-old, hit by air rifle pellets in Holbrooks (Coventry) (two 14-year-olds were arrested)

  • A man who suffered a minor injury when he was shot in the stomach in Bridlington (East Yorkshire), in one of two air rifle incidents in the town

  • A 14-year-old who had to recover in hospital after being shot in the face with an airgun in Witley (Surrey)

  • A man hit in the leg with an air rifle pellet whilst out jogging in Redditch (Worcestershire)

  • A bus driver who had a shard of glass in his eye after the windscreen of his vehicle was shattered in Walsgrave (Coventry)

  • A teacher shot in the head in the playground of a Nuneaton junior school and needed surgery to remove the pellet from her scalp

  • A teenage girl who had a finger broken in an incident in Wingate (County Durham)

  • A cyclist riding on the Taff Trail towards Merthyr Tydfil

• A man armed with an air weapon took random potshots at pedestrians in the High Road in Streatham (south London)

• The window of a police car parked in Latchford (Cheshire) was shattered by an air rifle pellet which flew past the officer inside.

• A window cleaner escaped injury when an air rifle or ball-bearing gun was fired at him in York.

• A mother and her baby son witnessed two airgun incidents in Wyke Regis (Dorset), one in which a seagull was killed and landed close to the baby and another when a window on their bus was shattered.

• Two teenagers armed with an air rifle stole a mobile phone from another youth in Chorley (Lancashire).

• A youth with an air rifle caused damage to lights outside a house in Wilmcote (Coventry).

• A woman was arrested and cautioned after threatening a group of children with an airgun in Feltwell (Norfolk).

• A man was arrested on suspicion of possessing firearms after a gun was brandished at a party in Eastington (Gloucestershire): an air rifle and a pellet-firing handgun were recovered.

• A man and three boys were warned after a police helicopter and armed police were called out after they were seen firing air rifles in a field in Peterborough: they had no permission to shoot.

• Airguns (Convictions - see also Imitation Guns) - A woman who used a high-powered air pistol to shoot into several buildings in Perth has been made the subject of a hospital order after admitting two charges including recklessly discharging a firearm and possessing the weapon without lawful authority.

• One teenager involved in a drive-by shooting with an air rifle in Runcorn (Cheshire) was given a £500 fine and two others were given referral orders: the gang hit three cyclists.

• Police found an air rifle in the wardrobe of a man in Swansea who had threatened to harm himself: he was prohibited from keeping the weapon because of a previous conviction.  He was placed under supervision for a year and ordered to do community service.

• Imitation Guns - A 16-year-old was shot in the eye with a pellet fired from a BB gun in Deeping St James (Lincolnshire).

• A teenager who held up a shop assistant in Hungerford (Berkshire) was allegedly armed with a BB gun.

• Two BB guns were seized by police when a man was arrested following reports of someone being threatened with a gun in Exeter.

• A man was charged with a number of offences, including two counts of possession of an imitation firearm, following two armed robberies in Somerset (Minehead, Weston-super-Mare).

• Police cautioned an 18-year-old who was spotted leaning out of a car window and shooting at members of the public in New Brighton (Merseyside) with a BB gun.  Two men were arrested for possessing an imitation firearm after causing fear to the public in Spalding (Lincolnshire).  Two arrests have been made in Hambleton (North Yorkshire) where youths carrying imitation firearms have been spreading panic.

• A man was arrested after neighbours in Earlham (Norfolk) spotted him firing a gun, believed later to be a BB gun, in his back garden.

• Police arrested a car seen with an imitation gun in his car at a location close to Downing Street in Westminster.  Two Royal Marines were chastised by police after being spotted with a BB gun in their car in Plymouth.  Three teenagers were given a final warning after being spotted with a ball-bearing firing air rifle in Lyndhurst (Hampshire).

• Police searched outbuildings in Three Mile Cross (Berkshire) over fears that they were being used to convert imitation guns into firearms.

• Imitation Guns (Convictions) -A man who ran amok with an imitation handgun and threatened two police officers when drunk after a party in Bolton has been jailed for two years.

• An 18-year-old from Swindon who had pointed an air weapon at a woman's face and admitted a charge of possessing an imitation gun with intent to cause fear of violence has also been jailed for two years (see June 2007 Incidents).

• Incidents Involving Animals - More birds and animals have been killed and injured as a result of airgun attacks.  Moorhens were killed in County Durham, seagulls in Hartlepool and Dorset and a swan in Nottingham.  Cats were shot in incidents in Edinburgh (two reported incidents), Birchington (Kent) and Amesbury (Wiltshire) and four captive fox cubs died after being shot at a release scheme in Somerset.  There were also reports of ducks and a dog being shot at with BB guns by youths in Bourne (Lincolnshire).

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