The family of a young man shot dead in a case of mistaken identity as part of a bloody gangland feud today said: “We will never forgive his killers.”
Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, was attacked as he listened to music with a friend in a van near his home in Walthamstow at about 9.30pm on March 14 last year.
He was hit in the legs and chest and staggered out of the van before collapsing as three hooded attackers fled the cul-de-sac.
Members of the public gave him first aid before paramedics arrived but he was pronounced dead an hour later.
This week Walthamstow gang members Hamza Ul-Haq, 21, Loic Nengese, 19, and a 16-year-old boy were convicted of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.
The court heard that Mr Williams-Torres, who was not a gang member, was killed with the same gun used in an earlier shooting in Leyton — one of a series of tit-for-tat attacks between rival gangs.
Other gang members were also convicted this week for that attack and an armed break-in at the Southall house of Ezra Abeka-Soares, who was later jailed for the murder of Elijah Dornelly, 17, in Walthamstow High Street in May 2017.
In a victim impact statement Mr Williams-Torres’s father, Tony, said: “What we all know is Joseph had not wronged anyone, he was not the intended target and as the evidence suggests this was a case of mistaken identity. Joseph never deserved to die and we will never be able to forgive those responsible.”
