Police in Leeds and Liverpool have launched separate murder investigations after a teenager and a man in his 40s died in two unrelated shootings.
A 19-year-old, named locally as Raheem Wilks, was shot outside the Too Sharp’s barber shop in the Harehills area of Leeds at 1.20pm on Thursday.
Police and ambulance crews attended the scene, where they found the victim seriously injured. Wilks was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead on Thursday evening.
A 49-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held in custody.
Meanwhile, police in Liverpool launched a separate murder investigation on Friday after 44-year-old Thomas Baker was shot at a meat and fish market in the Old Swan area of the city.
Officers were called at about 8.15am and provided first aid to Baker before an ambulance crew took him to hospital. He was treated for injuries to his head and chest, before being pronounced dead.
DCI Beverley Hyland, of Merseyside police, said that while inquiries were at a very early stage, it appeared to have been a targeted incident. “I want to reassure our community that we will take action to find those responsible for bringing gun crime to our streets,” she said.
“I want anyone who saw anything or has information about this case to ring us. You can call our dedicated hotline or Crimestoppers anonymously. It is vital that we receive information from our communities to tackle gun crime and get these weapons off our streets.”
The scene of the Leeds shooting remained cordoned off and was undergoing forensic examination on Friday as police inquiries continued. Flowers and tributes had been left at the scene, with one reading: “Daddy you were sadly taken.”
Wilks, a brother of the Leeds United under-23 player Mallik Wilks, was described as “full of life” by his grandmother Susan Coley. She told the BBC that she was the last person to see him alive.
“He said ‘I’ll be back soon’, I said ‘don’t get into any trouble’, and he said ‘I won’t’,” she said. “Somebody phoned us and said ‘your grandson is in the infirmary’. We went down there and sat there until he died.”
A post on the Leeds United FC Facebook page read: “It’s being reported that the man shot in Leeds yesterday is the brother of Mallik Wilks, Leeds United player. Thoughts with him and his family today. Devastating news. The Leeds United family are with you and your family in this difficult time. RIP.”
DCI Stuart Spencer, of the West Yorkshire police homicide and major inquiry team, said the shooting was “a targeted attack on the victim”.
“We would like to hear from anyone who was in the area yesterday and witnessed the incident or who has any information that could assist the investigation,” he said.
“We have been carrying out arrest inquiries with support from specialist firearms officers and that has led to the arrest of one man who is currently in custody on suspicion of murder.”
A postmortem was due to take place on Friday to formally establish the cause of death. Police said they would be contacting key representatives in the community to keep them informed about the situation and that there would be an increased police presence to reassure residents.
There has been a series of shootings in the neighbouring area of Chapeltown in Leeds over the past year. In August 2016, a 42-year-old man was seriously injured in a shooting outside the Nitetrax nightclub. In a separate incident on the same night, a 19-year-old was shot in the neck but survived.
There have also been a number of firearms incidents in the Old Swan area of Liverpool. In December, police were called after shots were fired into a house, shattering windows but leaving no casualties.
The most recent statistics from the Office for National Statistics show there were 7,866 offences in which firearms were involved in the year ending March 2015 – a 2% increase compared with the previous year and the first increase in gun crime in 10 years.
Of the 7,866 gun offences, 19 were fatalities, which was 10 fewer than the previous year and the lowest since the data series began in 1969.
