Sawn-off shotgun is fired outside Wolverhampton house, court told
A man brandished and fired a shotgun in a residential street to take ‘revenge’ after his friend was stabbed, a court heard.
Okeem Smith, 21, of no fixed abode, and Mohammed Jarral, 23, of Austin Street, Whitmore Reans, appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday, charged with possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, for the start of their trial.
It is alleged they conspired to get a shotgun in the aftermath of a stabbing in order to threaten those they believed to be responsible. Both have pleaded not guilty.
On March 3, 2016, Kyle Hamilton was stabbed in broad daylight on Lowe Street, Whitmore Reans in an incident which is still being investigated by West Midlands Police.
The court heard that the accused drove to nearby Devoran Close within half an hour of the stabbing and Okeem Smith allegedly pointed the gun at a group standing outside a house before firing it, but nobody was injured.
Mr Hugh O’Brien Quinn, prosecuting, said: “This case isn’t about the stabbing and what happened there, it is about the victim’s friends and what they did in revenge for the stabbing.
“It is about how these two were able to arm themselves with a sawn-off shotgun within an hour of the stabbing taking place and threaten a group of young men with that on a residential street.”
The pair had driven to Devoran Close after visiting their friend at Whitmore Reans Medical Practice and parked up by an alley near to Devoran Close before getting out and approaching the group unarmed, before realising they were outnumbered.
It was said by the prosecutor that Mohammed Jarral had witnessed the stabbing and knew where one of the people involved would be and directed himself and Okeem Smith to Devoran Close.
They returned later with the shotgun and were seen by a community nurse who had been visiting a patient in the street and reported that she had seen a gun being brandished to police.
Mr O’Brien Quinn said: “The dispute is that the defendants say that the people we have on CCTV doing all of this are not them, but the prosecution say that we have enough evidence to prove it was them.”
A jury was shown CCTV footage from streets surrounding the area in the hours leading up to both the stabbing and the firing of the shotgun yesterday.
The trial continues.
