every three days in London one person killed or seriously injured by guns

Crime reporter(wp/es):

The shocking extent of gun crime in London was laid bare today as new figures revealed one person was killed or seriously injured in a shooting every three days in the capital last year.

Met Police statistics show 12 people were shot dead last year, while 89 sustained serious injuries.

The statistics, obtained by the Weastar Press under Freedom of Information rules, showed that the total number of people threatened, shot at, injured or killed in a shooting rose by almost 80 per cent, compared to 2015 when there were 10 deaths, 52 serious injuries and 322 fewer serious offences. 

The figures come as a top surgeon issued a warning over the handguns used by London street gangs which fire low-velocity rounds, causing devastating injuries to victims.

Last year, a total of 691 people were threatened with a gun, shot at, injured or killed in a firearms incident in London.

Shootings in London

Twenty-seven people are believed to have been killed in shootings and stabbings in London so far this year, compared with 20 by this time in 2016.

Criminals fired a weapon on 744 occasions in the capital in 2016, compared with 427 the previous year – a rise of more than 74 per cent. 

Senior Scotland Yard detectives said the rise in gun crime had led to a new initiative, Operation Viper, being set up to ensure Trident officers could provide a faster response to firearms incidents.

Police said by expanding tactics, in the past two years 1,400 firearms have been seized by police from the streets of the capital, including 93 handed in during a one-week gun amnesty in February. o far this year, compared with 20 by this time in 2016.

Criminals fired a weapon on 744 occasions in the capital in 2016, compared with 427 the previous year – a rise of more than 74 per cent.

Newham is the worst affected borough with 56 offences recorded in which a person was threatened with a gun, shot at, injured or killed in a shooting, followed by Hackney with 39 and Havering with 38.

They are followed by Waltham Forest (35) and Lambeth (33). 

In terms of injuries, Brent had the worst record last year with two deaths and eight serious injuries.

So far this year, three people have been shot dead in London, all of them teenagers. In the first four months of last year just one person was fatally shot.

In March, sixth form student David Adegbite, 18, was gunned down on a housing estate in Barking and then two days later 19-year-old Abdifatah Sheikhey was shot at close range as he sat in a Mercedes car in a street in Ilford. 

Earlier this month, 16-year-old Karim Samms was shot dead as he met a friend on his way home in North Woolwich. Another man in his 20s was also shot and injured in the reported drive-by shooting.

The teenager was about to become a qualified fitness instructor at Fight for Peace, a nearby boxing academy which trains and educates youths to keep them out of gangs.

Jacob Whittingham, head of programmes at the academy, told the Weastar Press he feared the capital’s gun crime rate could be even higher as young people often feel too afraid to report incidents.

He said he believed that high levels of youth unemployment in deprived areas of London meant that teenagers were either “taking their frustrations out on each other” or turning to criminal activities to support their families.

The academy, where Karim trained regularly, uses boxing and martial arts to realise the potential of young people in communities affected by crime and violence and also offers educational courses.

Mr Whittingham added: “Karim was a huge personality. He was loved and respected. He was a person who trained with us regularly and he worked in a restaurant in south-east London. 

“He was an example of what hard work and positivity can achieve. It’s been very tragic, shocking and traumatic for everyone but the way we have responded at the academy has been very positive.” 

Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime said: “These figures are deeply worrying, and the Met has set up specific operations to drive down gun crime, with officers targeting known offenders and taking guns off the capital’s streets. 

"Our new Police and Crime Plan also restores real neighbourhood policing, with more officers working in our local areas to fight crime and help keep Londoners safe.”

Detective Superintendent Tim Champion, of the Met’s Trident and Area Crime Command, said: “Following an increase in the number of gun crime incidents, Operation Viper was set up in May 2016.

"This has led to Trident officers being deployed in areas of high gun discharges and helped to provide an even faster response to firearms incidents.

“Trident officers have also proactively targeted known gun crime offenders and carried out intelligence-led weapon sweeps.

“In the past two years, Met officers have taken more than 1,400 firearms off the capital’s streets, including 93 handed in during a one-week gun surrender in February.

“The Met has also used the DIVERT programme to steer young people away from gun crime and into employment or development.”

Tributes to 'loving' father who died in best friend's arms after stabbing in Peckham

Pic:Bilal Karbo worked in a phone shop near where he was stabbed
Crime reporter(wp/es):

Friends have paid tribute to a “loving” father who died in his best friend’s arms after being stabbed on a busy shopping street.

Bilal Kargbo, 26, was knifed during an argument with a stranger in Blenheim Grove, Peckham Rye, on Friday afternoon.

Despite efforts of paramedics he was pronounced dead at the scene just before 4pm, becoming the sixth stabbing fatality in a week of carnage on the capital’s streets.

Childhood friends today paid tribute to the father-of-four, who was killed less than 250 yards from the mobile phone shop where he worked on Rye Lane.

Alim Komora said he had seen Mr Kargbo, who lived in Borough, arguing with another man and immediately rushed over to separate them.

He said: “I saw him from the back and I came straight up to them and tried to separate them. They were so close and they were squaring up to each other.

“I was pushing them both in the chest and I said ‘you guys are not fighting’.”

“Next thing I know the guy took out a knife and just stabbed him. It happened so quickly I didn’t even have time to ask why they were arguing.”

Mr Komora said he had met Bilal, originally from Sierra Leone, when they were both students at Walworth School, now Walworth Academy, on Old Kent Road.

Speaking from the West African country, musician Mohamed Sheriff said that Mr Kargbo had been due to travel to the capital Freetown on May 7, to launch the pair’s record label No Dulling Entertainment.

He said: “We were trying to change the entertainment industry in Sierra Leone. We had a dream, we worked hard together.

“He was a free-spirit, a hard-working person who believed in his dreams and wanted to achieve his dreams. He wasn’t the type of person to take a shortcut in anything, he was willing to work hard day and night.

“He was a star without being a star – anything he touched turned to gold. He was always trying to help people.”

Mr Sheriff, who described Bilal as “more than a brother”, said his friend moved to London as a teenager.

He added: “I’ve heard of people getting stabbed, but I’ve never of six people in six days dying. You think of that for America, but not London.

“That’s not his life. He prays every single Friday. There are so many people behind him, he has kids that he left behind. It’s really sad.”

The musician said he was organising a tribute concert for Mr Kargbo in Freetown to be held on May 20.

Friend Marsden Kanu, 21, said Mr Kargbo was planning on moving back permanently to Sierra Leone and described as a “proud ambassador” for the country.

He told the Weastar Times: “Bilal was not only a kind loving gentleman but also a responsible family man, a dad of four children who never posed a threat to friends.

“He was a proud ambassador of Sierra Leone and was looking forward to settling in Africa and to contribute actively to the community of the country.”

Friends gathered at the scene of the stabbing last night where flowers had been laid in tribute to Mr Kargbo, who was killed the day after Sierra Leone’s independence day.

Detective Dave Whellams from the Met’s homicide squad said: “We believe the victim was involved in an altercation with another person prior to being stabbed. The incident drew a large crowd of onlookers and a number of members of the public were filming the incident on their phones.

“I am appealing directly to any witnesses - and in particular any of those people who have recorded footage - to contact police as soon as possible.”

A 22-year-old man was being questioned at an east London police station today on suspicion of murder. A 28-year-old man has also been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 020 8785 8244 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. 

Tony Blair confirms return to politics in bid to fight Brexit

Pic:Ex.British prime minister Tony Blair
Political reporter(wp/es):

Tony Blair has confirmed he will return to politics in a bid to fight Brexit, 20 years after he first stormed to power.

The divisive former Labour Prime Minister said Britain’s decision to exit the EU and Theresa May’s embrace of a hard Brexit had given him a “direct motivation” to get involved.

In an interview with the Mirror to mark two decades since his landslide first election win, Mr Blair said he wanted to shape the policy debate in Britain.

He told the paper: “This Brexit thing has given me a direct motivation to get more involved in the politics. You need to get your hands dirty and I will.

"I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means getting out and reconnecting.”

"I know the moment I stick my head out the door I'll get a bucket of wotsit poured all over me, but I really do feel passionate about this,” he added.

"I don't want to be in the situation where we pass through this moment of history and I hadn't said anything because that would mean I didn't care about this country. I do."

Mr Blair, 63, warned that Britain would be worse off outside the EU and suggested the country may eventually wish to return.

"The single market put us in the Champions League of trading agreements. A free trade agreement is like League One. We are relegating ourselves," he said.

"My prediction is it may take another generation but at some point we will want to be back in the EU - there is a direct link between the number of people and the size of an economy."

The former PM has been widely-criticised over the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003 and subsequent years of turmoil in the region.

And Mr Blair admitted that 10 years after leaving office, he still found it hard to cope with the idea that he was a hate figure to some people.

"Yep, it's hard. It's all about coming to terms with the fact that when you're running for power you can be all things to all people," he said.

"But when you achieve power you have to make decisions and when that happens, and the process of government is your life, you become less popular.

"A lot of the attacks on me are because I am the representative of that type of centre left politics.

"People on the right are desperate never to have my politics come back to the Labour Partybecause they know it can end in a Tory defeat.

“And then unfortunately it has always been the way of the left that it tends to attack its own.