Faces of 'cowardly' criminals who 'could have killed' two children in Wolverhampton shooting
Two children, one of them an 11-year-old girl, were injured by stray bullets in a Wolverhampton shooting that three men were responsible for - but when the trio of perpetrators were interviewed by police, two of them denied involvement and one of them made no comment.
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These are the faces of the "cowardly" men found guilty of attempted murder.
In May this year, the young girl was playing in a Shelley Road park when she was hit in the leg by a stray round.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy on a bike in the neighbouring car park was hit just below the knee.
They were hit by bullets fired from a stolen Ford Focus. At least "six" shots were fired.
The men inside it were aiming at a stolen Mini Cooper in what’s believed to have been a violent feud between gangs.
The Ford Focus sped away, chased by the stolen Mini Cooper.
Someone in the Mini fired a shot at the Focus, blowing out its rear windscreen, but the three men managed to escape.
A major investigation, focusing on forensic examination of bullets, CCTV, mobile phone and witness evidence, established that Kian Durnin, aged 22, had been driving the car, with Tireq McIntosh, 23, in the front passenger seat.
Both men had fired guns, while Martinho De Sousa, aged 24, was a back-seat passenger.
In interview, Durnin and McIntosh denied any involvement, while De Sousa made no comment.
After a trial at Birmingham Crown Court all three were found guilty of attempted murder and aggravated vehicle taking.
McIntosh, of Valley Road, De Sousa, of Deansfield Road, and Durnin, of Milton Road, will be sentenced on December 20.
Det Insp Francis Nock, from our Major Crime Team, said: “At least six shots were fired and it’s by sheer luck that these two children weren’t more seriously injured or killed.
“Thankfully, they have both made recoveries from their physical wounds. But this has left their families shattered.
“We may never know who the intended targets were, or why the shooting happened, but we believe it involved tensions between gangs in the Wolverhampton area, and may be connected to illegal drugs," he continued.
“Our recently created Major Crime Team had the resources and expertise to put a huge amount of officers into this investigation, reviewing more than 2,000 hours of CCTV and exploring countless lines of enquiry.
“This was a cowardly attack by men who had no hesitation in firing deadly guns next to a children’s playground.”
