Silent disco partygoer shot dead for ‘petty revenge’, court told

A silent disco partygoer was shot dead in an “act of petty revenge”, a court has heard.

Leroy Mitchell, 35, was gunned down outside the headphones party at a house in Croydon, south London, on October 2 2021.

Prosecutor Joel Smith KC said Mr Mitchell had arrived at around 4.30am – and by around 4.50am he had been fatally shot in the head at close range with a 12-bore shotgun in the car park outside.

Alpacino Veii, 29, known as Alpo, and 32-year-old Cimarron Dume-Gooden are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of his murder.

Mr Smith told jurors: “The murder was, it would seem, an act of petty revenge after a fight between Mr Mitchell and the first defendant in this case at a nightclub a couple of years previously.”

The “trivial motive” dated back to May 2019 when Mr Mitchell allegedly hit Veii in the face and another man was knocked over by a car after a fight broke out between their groups at Granaries nightclub in Croydon.

Veii had become very upset after one of his friends was knocked over by a Volvo and had tried to hit the vehicle with a hammer, it was alleged.

On being arrested, a “fuming” Veii claimed to be the victim and said he had been punched in the face, the court was told.

Jurors were told that Mr Mitchell later told a friend he had been in a fight and “knocked out Alpo”.

Mr Smith suggested the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic lockdown had prevented the defendants from taking revenge sooner.

In the hours before his death, Mr Mitchell had been at his mother’s house and gone back to the Granaries nightclub before moving on to the silent disco at 4.30am.

Jurors were told a silent disco or headphones party was an event in which people paid for headphones to hear music.

Mr Mitchell’s alleged killers had spent the evening in an area of West Croydon known as The Strip and arrived at the Birdhurst Road venue in a BMW at 2.10am, jurors heard.

At 4.51am, revellers heard a bang from the car park that sounded like a firework, jurors were told.

As people started to flee, one of them stumbled over Mr Mitchell’s body on the ground in the car park and called 999.

Neighbours also allegedly heard the gunshot followed by a woman screaming and a man swearing and shouting: “Help me.”

Police arrived and Mr Mitchell was pronounced dead at 5.26am.

A post-mortem examination concluded he had been shot once in the head at close range with a 12-bore shotgun.

After the shooting, Veii and Dume-Gooden allegedly fled in the BMW hatchback bearing false registration plates.

By October 6, the car had been torched along with clothes the defendants had been wearing and Sim cards in an attempt to destroy evidence, it was claimed.

They then fled to Somerset where they “lay low for a few days” before returning to London hoping they had got away with it, Mr Smith said.

The shooting itself was not caught on CCTV but Mr Smith said different strands of evidence, including from traffic cameras and mobile phones, showed Veii and Dume-Gooden were responsible.

Veii, from Southwark, and Dume-Gooden, of Thornton Heath, south London, have denied murder.

Kwabena Ofori, 29, of South Norwood, and Issa Souleman, 29, of New Cross, along with Veii and Dume-Gooden, have denied perverting the course of justice between October 1 and 14 2021.

The Old Bailey trial continues.