On a balmy summer evening, families in the Chesham area of Bury were relaxing outside their homes as they enjoyed the last of that day's sun.
As darkness descended, children played in the street and neighbours chatted after months spent in lockdown.
But the tranquil summertime scene was disturbed as two cars raced along the narrow terraced streets in what was described as 'something from a movie'.
By the time it was over, an 18-year-old man had been shot dead in the street.
It was the tragic conclusion to a bitter feud between two violent young men over a teenage girl.
The row, which had simmered throughout the summer of 2020, left three men serving life behind bars for murder and a family robbed of a promising young boxer.
Cole Kershaw - nicknamed 'King Cole' by friends and family - was gunned down after being caught in the crossfire of his best friend's violent dispute with a love rival.
It has now been a year since Cole's murder.
This week, his family and friends gathered to mark the anniversary and celebrate his life by releasing balloons at Clarence Park in Bury.
Last month, one of his killers, Kamran Mohammed, was cleared of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards the girl at the centre of the dispute.
It means the M.E.N. can now examine and reveal the crucial part the row over a girl played in it.
Earlier this year, three men were convicted of murdering Cole following a month-long trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Kamran Mohammed, who fired the fatal shot, was ordered to serve a minimum of 27 years behind bars.
Mohammed Izaarh Khan and Khayam Ali Khurshid - who were with Mohammed at the time of the shooting - were jailed for at least 24 and 27 years respectively.
An apprentice scaffolder, described as 'a good kid' and 'a grafter', Cole was not the intended target on that fateful night.
Jurors heard how he was simply 'the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people'.
Tensions between Mohammed and Cole's friend, Spencer Woods, had been stewing for months over a girl both men had dated.
Friends told of how Cole, a former Derby High School pupil who lived with his family in Walmersley, had tried to help change Mr Woods' lifestyle as he feared his friend had got in with ‘the wrong crowd’.
“Cole told him every single day he needed to change his life,” Cole's friend Tia Mawdsley said in evidence.
“Now Cole is dead because he wouldn’t listen.”
Mohammed - a drug dealer known to friends as 'Kammy' - met the girl in late 2019 and the pair soon started seeing each other.
She had only recently broken up with Mr Woods following a two-year relationship, in which she accused her ex-partner of being 'violent' and 'possessive'.
The two men did not know each other, but first crossed paths at a petrol station when Mohammed and the girl were together.
When she went inside to pay, Mr Woods asked her whether Mohammed was ‘her new boyfriend’.
As Mohammed and the girl drove off, Mr Woods tried to chase them.
On another occasion, the couple were walking through the Dicky Bird estate in Bury when Mr Woods spotted them and chased them in his car.
They managed to escape by running down an alley.
The girl eventually broke up with Mohammed in March of last year after they were involved in a serious crash while he was driving.
Following the split, she maintained a close relationship with Mr Woods, who she knew 'resented' Mohammed.
At trial, the girl said: “I knew that Spencer hated him. Every word he said about him would be awful or that he was going to do something and vice versa.
"Kamran would say that he hated Spencer’s guts.”
As tensions between the two men increased, the feud spilled over into violence and threats.
The pair were involved in a number of incidents in the weeks and months leading up to Cole's death.
In April of last year, Mr Woods was attacked by a group of masked men near to his home.
Armed with baseball bats and machetes, the men approached him while he was alone in his car, before dragging him from the vehicle and attacking him.
He was left with serious head injuries, which required hospital treatment.
Mohammed is said to have admitted his involvement in the attack to the girl and ‘expressed his dislike of Mr Woods and his associates’.
Mr Woods refused to help police investigating the attack as he said he feared being labelled ‘a grass’.
He planned to retaliate, but said no specific plan was put in place.
Several months went by and the animosity between the love rivals continued to grow.
Threats were exchanged over text messages, while the pair would chase one another in their cars whenever they passed in the street.
By August, Mohammed and the girl had begun seeing each other again, spending a night together at a hotel in Manchester city centre.
Mohammed confessed ‘strong feelings’ for the girl and said he believed she felt the same way.
But, on the morning of August 8 - four days before Cole’s death - a drunken Mohammed was arrested by armed police after he showed up outside her home and threatened to 'shoot' people.
Recalling the incident, the girl said: "He was outside the window screaming in the street, shouting how much he loved me and wanted me to come out and talk to him.
"He said that my mum and friend had brainwashed me, was going to kill them, kill my dad, my brother. He said he was going to shoot them.
"He was causing an absolute scene."
When interviewed by police, Mohammed admitted he had become 'angry' when he saw two men inside the house, but denied being in possession of a gun.
Following the incident, the girl received a text message from Mr Woods, which read: “I hope you’re ok.”
He added: “He is going to get hurt differently. Who the f*** does he think he is?”
In response, the girl reportedly told him she'd 'had enough'.
In an attempt to apologise for his behaviour, Mohammed purchased a diamond ring for the girl after being released from police custody.
He met with her that same day to give her the gift, ignoring a bail condition not to contact her.
When Mr Woods later learned of the ring, he snatched it from the girl and threw it down a grid. He said he did so to show her she 'needed to stay away' from Mohammed.
"He was furious," the girl said, of Mohammed.
"He thought that I was seeing Spencer again or something like that.
"He was saying 'why would I go back to someone who treated me like Spencer did?'"
Two days later, Mr Woods attacked Mohammed with a hammer before threatening to kill his family and reportedly exposing a gun in his waistband.
The escalating threats and violence between the men were about to come to a head.
In the early hours of August 12 - the day Cole was killed - Mohammed showed up outside the woman's home while Mr Woods was there.
Cross words were exchanged between the two men, with Mr Woods telling the girl he had threatened to blow Mohammed’s mum’s house and car up if he continued.
Less than 24 hours later, the feud reached its crescendo as Cole lay dying in the street.
The tragic circumstances that led to him becoming caught up in the love triangle were revealed in court.
Cole, a keen boxer who trained at Brick City Boxing Gym in Bury, spent the hours prior to his death socialising with friends at a party hosted by Tia Mawdsley.
Ms Mawdsley claimed Cole had asked for Mr Woods not to be invited as they had fallen out over Mr Woods' involvement in drugs and fighting.
She said: “Over the last year, Spencer met these new friends. They were quite dodgy.
"Cole was not involved in anything like that.”
Jurors heard Cole sent a text message to Mr Woods saying Ms Mawdsley had told him he was not welcome at the party.
At about 9pm on August 12, Cole, Ms Mawdsley and another woman, Taylor Phillipson, were making their way to a Premier store in Chesham Road to buy drinks when Mohammed drove past them in a BMW.
When the group returned to the party, they discovered Mr Woods had arrived with three other men.
Ms Mawdsley said she agreed to let him in, but that there was ‘a tension in the house’.
Another partygoer recalled a tension between Mr Woods’ group and Cole’s younger brother, Patrick, who was also at the party.
As a result, Patrick and others decided to leave. They tried to convince Cole to join them, but he chose to stay.
Shortly after, Cole told Mr Woods he had spotted the same BMW driving past the house.
The two men left the party and, along with three others, climbed into Mr Woods' Ford Mondeo and began chasing the BMW.
It was a decision that would ultimately cost Cole his life.
As they left, Ms Phillipson recalled him telling her: “Lock the door, we’ll be five minutes.”
Stashed inside Mr Woods' Mondeo were bricks and a machete, and Mr Woods admitted his intention during the chase was to hunt down and 'hurt' Mohammed.
However, at some point during the pursuit, the BMW ended up chasing the Mondeo.
As the cars raced along the warren of one-way streets around Chesham Road, a gunman twice opened fire from inside the BMW.
One of the men sitting next to Cole in the back of the Mondeo recalled how his 'panicked' friend ducked to avoid the bullets.
When the two cars eventually crashed in Chesham Road, those in the Mondeo climbed out and tried to flee.
A third bullet was fired from the BMW and struck Cole in the chest.
He tried to run but collapsed after a few paces, his chilling cries for help captured on footage from a nearby house.
Two violent young men's obsession with a girl had ended with an innocent teenager being murdered in the street.
