Gang blasted Wolverhampton chip shop with shotgun while boy, 9, was inside
A shotgun was fired at the window of a chip shop with a nine-year-old boy inside as rival gangs clashed in Wolverhampton.
Three members of The Glentworth Block Fam dived for cover behind the counter following the shooting at The Golden Fryer in Whitmore Reans.
One, Nya Graham-Shea, aged 19, dropped an imitation gun as he fled through the kitchen – in view of the son of the owner.
The offender who fired the shotgun is still at large, but at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Graham-Shea, a former Wolves youth football player, was jailed for 52 months.
The shooting led to the police successfully applying for banning orders against the youth and five other members of the gang.
And the incident at the Glentworth Gardens shopping precinct on January 14 has laid bare the potential dangers to police from underground gang culture in the city.
Mr Stefan Kolodynski, prosecuting, told the court: “The genesis of what happened on January 14 was that in Whitmore Reans there had been many months of tit for tat acts of violence from two street gangs.
“The fish and shop Golden Fryer was the location. It was open to the public at the time and a nine-year-old was in the rear of the shop.”
He said Graham-Shea along with gang members Connor Chambers and Tevin Thomas entered the shop, and the shot was fired minutes later.
He said: “An unknown group of people arrived outside. A 12-bore shotgun was discharged into the front window.
“The group in the shop tried to make their departure and flee. As a result of this, this defendant jumped over the counter, and from his pocket or waist band an imitation firearm fell out.”
CCTV was shown in the court of the three men leaping over the counter and running to the kitchen.
It also showed Graham-Shea dropping the 1.77 air pistol, which had its mechanism removed, before picking it up and fleeing.
Mr Kolodynski said: “Despite the fact it could not be fired, by virtue of this man’s association with gangs and his guilty plea for drug offences – it is part and parcel of street gang culture.
“The only reason he had it was to brandish it and cause fear.”
The pistol was later discovered at Graham-Shea’s father’s address in Parkfields, along with two knives and a replica mask from the film Scream.
In a search on Graham-Shea’s home address in May Place, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, police found hundreds of pounds of cocaine and heroin bagged in 0.2 gram wrappings.
Two lots of cash totalling £3,040 was also discovered along with a kitchen knife used to cut the drugs up and scales.
Graham-Shea was sentenced at the crown court on Wednesday to 52 months’ detention at a Young Offenders Institution after pleading guilty to two counts of possessing drugs with intent to supply and one charge of possessing imitation firearm. Mr Chris O’Gorman, defending, said Graham-Shea had started life with a bright future and was part of the Wolves youth set-up before getting involved in crime. He has previous convictions for robbery and discharging an imitation firearm in a public place.
Mr O’Gorman said: “He had shown promise as a footballer. He was taken on at some level by Wolves.
“But he is not the only young black male who found some sort of attraction in hanging around with others who did not have a bright future as he had.” Judge Peter Barrie said: “I can be difficult for a young man to turn his back on friends and make his own decisions about life.
“But you must understand that we are all responsible for our own behaviour. If you are going to break out of an intensive pattern of offending, that is what you will have to do, find a way of standing up for yourself.”
At Birmingham County Court in May, an injunction was served against members of the The Glentworth Block Fam gang banning them from entering parts of Whitmore Reans, Pendeford, Heath Town and the city centre.
The injunctions were for Graham-Shea, Chambers, aged 20 from Oxley, Tevin Thomas, 20, from Aldersley, and Romayne Brown, 18, Kieron Thomas, 19, and Iko Anderson, 19, all from Whitmore Reans.
