19-year-old found dead in Mercedes after shooting in east London

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A 19-year-old was found dead in a car after being shot in east London, it has emerged.

The victim was shot as he sat in a Mercedes, before being found by shocked passers-by after a “commotion” in a busy road in Ilford last night.

Paramedics found the man unconscious with a gunshot wound and battled to save him but he died at the scene.

The incident comes just two days after an 18-year-old was shot dead as he cycled through an estate in near-by Barking.

David Adegbite, 18, was ambushed by a gang who surrounded him in a car park on the St Ann’s estate shortly after 7pm on Sunday.

Scotland Yard said today it was too early to say if the two shootings were linked.

Officers were called to reports of the shooting at the Ilford Lane junction with Bedford Road, Ilford, at 10.10pm last night.

Witnesses described hearing two gun shots ring out after a fight broke out near the junction of Bedford Road.

A shop worker said: “There was some sort of a gang fight, probably over drugs, and then a stabbing and two gun shots and then the shooters drove off.

“Armed police come down and blocked off the road.”

Khalid Hussain, chair of Ilford Business Association, who runs K1tyres in Ilford Lane, said CCTV showed a car pulling up alongside another vehicle last night. 

He said: “There’s some kind of commotion, and it looks like the man the car is shot. The car looks like a Mercedes.

“The other car drives off then there’s a Good Samaritan who runs to the car. I think he calls police and tries to help them man inside.”

Residents of the road where the man was shot, a quiet street of Victorian terraces, spoke of their shock at the killing.

Rafa Roblewski, 31, a student who recently moved to the street with his girlfriend said: “It’s really scary this has happened. We hoped we were moving somewhere nicer and then a man is shot dead here.”

Buses were diverted and a cordon was still in place this morning as forensic officers combed the area for evidence.

A Met spokeswoman said: “Police were called by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) on to a report of a man unconscious after being shot in Ilford Lane at the junction with Bedford Road, Ilford.

“Officers attended along with the LAS and found a man suffering from a gunshot wound. He was attended to by paramedics but was pronounced dead at the scene at 23.22pm.”

The family of the man, whose age is not known, have not yet been informed of his death. There have been no arrests.