Shot boy, 11, dies in mother’s arms

A DYING 11-year-old boy spent his last moments being cradled in the arms of his mother after being shot in a pub car park.

Rhys Jones died after being shot in the neck as he played football with friends outside the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, at about 7.30pm on Wednesday night.

Family friend Tony Edge said Rhys’s mother Melanie raced to the scene where she held him until the ambulance arrived. Paramedics battled to save his life, but he was pronounced dead later at Alder Hey Hospital.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the killing as a “heinous crime” and pledged that those responsible would face justice.

Speaking at Downing Street, Mr Brown said: “This was a heinous crime that has shocked the whole of the country. The people responsible will be tracked down, arrested and punished.”

Merseyside Police have arrested two teenagers, aged 14 and 18, on suspicion of murdering the youngster.

Local residents said shots were fired by a teenager who rode past the pub on a BMX bike.

Mr Edge, 40, a children’s football coach, told how he broke the devastating news of the shooting to Rhys’s mother and drove her to the scene of the shooting.

Mr Edge said there was an issue between two gangs in Croxteth, but claimed Rhys had absolutely nothing to do with them. “Rhys and his friends even stayed away from local teenagers, because they scared them. He has been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Many residents on the Croxteth Park Estate, which was formerly the biggest private housing estate in western Europe, spoke about living increasingly in the shadow of gun crime.

A witness said Rhys had been to football training on pitches behind the pub and was walking across the car park when a gunman cycled down a path on the other side of the pub. “He just stopped and straddled the bike and shot through the car first, then another two shots. It’s just callous how he did it. My mate was stood outside and he said it could have been anyone, but it looked like he aimed at the lad. It was a handgun, a big handgun.”