Witnesses reluctant to help find girls' killers

Witnesses have been reluctant to help police investigating the murders of two teenage girls killed in a storm of gunfire at a party, senior officers said today.

Detectives believe people with vital information may be holding back – despite £10,000 (€15,430) of rewards – because they fear gangsters suspected to be responsible for the New Year horror.

Police are working on a theory that a feud between rival gangs exploded into the deadly firefight, involving at least one sub-machine gun, at the party held at a Birmingham hairdressers’ salon in the early hours of Thursday.

Revellers Charlene Ellis, 18, and Latisha Shakespear, 17, died in a hail of bullets, while Charlene’s twin sister Sophie, also hit, is now under armed guard in hospital, where her condition is described as stable after undergoing surgery.

Another victim, 17-year-old Cheryl Shaw, has been released from hospital following treatment for a gunshot wound to one of her hands.

The four teenagers – who are all related – were caught in the crossfire when the shooting broke out at the rear of Uniseven Studios, in Birchfield Road.

Only hours earlier, the sisters and their two cousins had posed together for a photograph in front of a Christmas tree before leaving for the party.

Relatives of the “inseparable” twins were said to be too devastated to talk about the tragedy today.

Detective Superintendent Dave Mirfield, leading the murder hunt, said: “These girls were not members of any gang. They were merely on a night out with friends.

“My overwhelming thoughts are that these girls are innocent and were caught up in an exchange of fire.”

He went on: “It could be gang-related. I would not be naive enough to think it would not be.”

The girls’ families were “absolutely traumatised”, he said, adding: “You can only hazard a guess at the trauma they are going through.”

Mr Mirfield hinted at police frustration when he rated the response to appeals for witnesses as “reasonable” but said: “There is a reluctance of people to come forward. Whether that is fear, or whether that is a reluctance to speak to police, I don’t know.”

Officers have established that more than 30 9mm rounds were fired from more than one gun, including at least one sub-machine gun.

CCTV footage retrieved from the rear of the parade of shops is being studied with footage from several locations around the city, which officers hope will help them trace the fleeing gunmen.

Detectives believe up to 100 people were present at the party, but many had fled by the time officers arrived, leaving only around 30 revellers at the scene.

Meanwhile, neighbours of the twins’ mother, Beverley Thomas, who lives in the Lozells district of Birmingham, paid tribute to the girls.

Huler Henry, 40, said: “I had seen them both on the evening of the party they were going to. They were getting ready to go out to enjoy themselves.

“They were a very happy pair of teenagers. They were inseparable, always going round together and joking with each other.

“My husband went round to see their mother yesterday and said she was devastated.”

Police have described the shootings as “exceptional” and “unprecedented”, and have stepped up armed patrols across Birmingham.

Rewards totalling £10,000 (€15,430) have been offered by the Birmingham Evening Mail and the Victims of Crime group for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers.

The Mail’s editor, Roger Borrell, said: “As a community newspaper, we grieve with those who are caught up in this tragedy.

“Their killers must be found,” he said, adding: “These killings happened on our patch. This reward shows our determination to help the police in any way we can.”

Meanwhile, opposition parties warned against moves to impose a minimum five-year jail term for anyone caught illegally carrying a gun.

The British Home Office confirmed that provisions to toughen the gun laws could be added to the Criminal Justice and Sentencing Bill currently before Parliament.

The Metropolitan Police has been at the head of the campaign for a minimum five-year sentence for carrying an illegal firearm.

However Home Office officials sought to play down reports that the Government was set to bring forward legislation “within days” in response to the Birmingham shootings, saying no final decision had been made.

Conservative home affairs spokesman Dominic Grieve acknowledged that the rising “gun culture” had to be tackled but said the answer lay in a more active approach to community policing and better targeting of criminals.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes also acknowledged that tackling illegal guns had to be a priority but said that minimum jail sentences were not the solution.

A string of shooting incidents linked to turf wars between rival drug gangs has terrified Birmingham recently.

The firms, with names such as the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys, operate in parts of the north of the city, including Aston, Winson Green and Handsworth.

The mother of one murder victim gave a chilling insight today into the often banal motives behind some of the killings and the casual manner in which the gangs dispense death.

Gleenreid Allen, whose son Corey, 28, was shot dead in a Handsworth nightclub two years’ ago, said she believed the Burger Bar Boys were behind the killing.

Mrs Allen, speaking at the scene of the latest murders in the area, said: “The Burger Bar Boys had been on to Corey for years, trying to get him to join them, but he refused and for that they robbed him and shot him.”

The 50-year-old mother added: “These people have absolutely no regard for human life and it has got to stop.”

In London, one senior officer assigned to halting gun crime said the tragedy highlighted the existence of a breed of young killers with no conscience.

Commander Alan Brown, head of Scotland Yard’s Operation Trident, which targets black-on-black gun crime in London, said they saw guns – the bigger the better - as status symbols and engaged in “disrespect” shootings sparked by as little as someone making fun of their haircut or spilling a drink.

He said: “These are not trained killers these are people who are completely unaware or don’t care about the damage the firearm can cause.

“The types of people who now have access to firearms are immature people with very potent weapons.”