Close-knit Walsall community rocked by fatal shooting of Connor Brookes

His shooting at the hands of three associates of Walsall Market murder victim Bailey Atkinson has shed light on the background to the escalating feud, which has left two young men dead and the borough's stunned residents worrying about what may happen next.

Connor, aged 20, and a friend were sitting in a van parked up in Well Lane near the Chaucer Road junction in Blakenall just before 5pm on July 8 last year when their attackers struck in revenge for the earlier killing.

Byron Sellick, aged 20, Jake Sanbrook, aged 23, and Julian Falconer, also 20, were inside a stolen black Ford Focus which pulled up alongside the van before it was fired on at close range. 

The judge who presided over the case and sentenced the murderers blamed revenge for the killing.

 Justice Michael Chambers told them: "I hold all three of you equally responsible for this murder. This murder had been planned for months. It was revenge for the killing of Bailey Atkinson.

"Whether you are the one who fired the gun, were the driver or were giving encouragement, I hold you equally culpable.

"This was a so-called drive-by shooting and a tit-for-tat, gang-related execution. Mr Brookes was targeted because he was the brother of a man found guilty of murdering Connor, and his passenger Bradley was a cousin of one of those murderers.

He added: "It was a brazen attack in a public place where there were shops, residential properties and members of the public going about their business.

"The incident saw dozens of shocked residents including relatives rush into the street immediately afterwards and ahead of the quick arrival of the emergency services."

He added: "These defendants were all part of or close to Bailey Atkinson's Moseley estate gang."  

The sorry tale relates to Connor’s brother, Patrick Brookes, who was among seven convicted of the murder of Bailey Atkinson, aged 20, who was stabbed in a ferocious machete attack at Walsall's old High Street market hill on January 28, 2023. 

Bailey was unarmed and on a night out walking through Walsall town centre when a group in stolen cars initially tried to use the vehicles to seriously injure him, before chasing and chopping at him in an incident which was captured on CCTV footage that was then circulated on social media before West Midlands Police could intervene. 

That murder incident is thought to have been in retaliation for an earlier stabbing involving Bailey and the brother of one his killers in Bloxwich the previous year. 

He had moved to Walsall from Coventry two years earlier intending to escape a gang lifestyle, but sadly became embroiled in Walsall’s own local rival groups.

The result has now led to Sellick, Sanbrook and Falconer being given life sentences for murdering Connor Brookes.

Falconer, of Wyrley Close, New Invention, Willenhall; Sanbrook, of Fisher Road, Mossley, Bloxwich and Sellick, of no fixed abode, were all found guilty of murder, the attempted murder of his friend and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life following a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court. All three were each jailed for life with a minimum of 29 years at the sentencing hearing on Friday (May 30).

Samuel Danks-Petty, aged 20, of Buildwas Close, Mossley, was jailed for three years for perverting the course - relating to him helping the others to get home safely as the police investigation got underway.

A floral memorial is still on display near the scene of the shooting.