Police at the scene near Hornsey Rise Gardens
(Picture: John Dunne for the Evening Standard)A murder investigation has been launched after the fatal shooting of a teenager in a “targeted hit” near a nursery and primary school.
Police were called to Hornsey Rise Gardens, Crouch Hill, north London, at 4.24pm on Tuesday to reports of multiple gunshots. Neighbours tried to help the 19-year-old, who was shot in the head, but he died from his injuries.
The shooting took place just 100m away from Hornsey Day Nursery and nearby Ashmount Primary School.
A witness said the victim had been “ambushed” and blasted with at least three rounds in an alley next to the school.
She told the Standard: “There was no argument or anything like that. I just heard the boy who was shot say one word but I couldn’t work out what it was.
“Then I heard ‘bang, bang’ gunshots very close together. Then a gap and one or two more shots as if they were making sure they finished him off. It looked like a targeted hit. The shooters ran off down the alley. It was like something out of a movie.”
The witness added: “I had to run for cover. My friend on the phone heard the shots and told me to run.”
An off duty firefighter administered CPR at the scene before emergency services arrived, according to a witness.
A neighbour told how the teenager was found unconscious and lying face down on the ground.
He added: “I was at home working when I heard gunshots and I thought it was fireworks or kids throwing firecrackers.
“When I went outside, there was a boy bleeding on the pavement.
“The emergency services must have spent 30 or 40 minutes working on him in the street before they took him away on a stretcher.”
A police spokesman said a 19-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of being in possession of an offensive weapon. He is in custody at a north London police station.
The victim is the 15th teenager killed so far this year, equalling the number in 2020 and putting London on course to overtake the figure of 26 from 2019.
