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Armed police target gun gangs
More armed police officers will be deployed to the streets of south London to combat an "unprecedented" spate of shootings that has claimed the lives of three teenage boys.
Scotland Yard announced it was setting up a special task force after the killing of Billy Cox on Wednesday.
The shooting followed the deaths of James Andre Smartt-Ford and Michael Dosunmu, both also gunned down in the past two weeks.
In an attempt to stop the violence escalating any further, more armed officers will be sent to south London's gun crime hotspots – particularly in the boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth.
They will mainly be deployed in police vehicles, but officers will also be conducting stop-checks on suspicious cars and mounting high-visibility patrols in the most at-risk areas.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has spoken to the Home Office about lowering the age at which the mandatory five-year sentence for carrying a gun could be imposed, and said today his force was "absolutely determined" to end the recent spate of shootings.
The latest, in Clapham, has heightened fears that gun crime among teenagers in south London gangs is now out of control.
Even officers used to dealing with gun crime in the area have been "shocked and appalled" by the young age of the latest victims – two 15-year-old schoolboys and a 16-year-old.
James Andre Smartt-Ford, the eldest of the three, was shot and killed at a busy ice rink in Streatham on February 3. The other two, Michael Dosunmu and Billy Cox, were both gunned down in their homes in Peckham and Clapham respectively, Michael on February 6, Billy only on Wednesday.
Police arrested a man yesterday over Michael Dosunmu's murder. He is being questioned by detectives.
The death of Billy Cox prompted Sir Ian, Britain's top police officer, to call an urgent meeting of his most senior colleagues to discuss the shootings at Scotland Yard yesterday.
They also looked at two other murders in south London in the last two weeks – those of Chamberlain Igwemba, 47, who was shot in a flat in Camberwell, and Javarie Crighton, 21, who was stabbed in Peckham.
Following the talks, Sir Ian announced that "resources and expertise from across the Met" would be put into a special task force dedicated to solving the crimes and reassuring London's frightened communities.
He said there was "no evidence" that all of these crimes were linked, or that they were "tit for tat" murders, but he admitted there were "evidential leads" that linked some of them.
"What they are is entirely unacceptable to the communities of London," he said.
Sir Ian pointed out that gun crime in London had actually fallen by 14 per cent in the last year, but admitted this was "no comfort" to the boys' families.
The principal message, he added, was one of sympathy for them and an "absolute determination to keep this from escalating" and to "get on top of this problem".
Sir Ian said he had spoken with Home Secretary John Reid yesterday morning about lowering the age at which the mandatory five-year sentence for carrying a gun could be imposed.
Scotland Yard would like to see it lowered from 21 to 17.
A Home Office spokeswoman said the Home Secretary was "not unsympathetic" to the views of the Commissioner.
Mr Reid will meet Sir Ian and other senior officers today to discuss the next steps in combating gun and gang culture across the country.
Mr Reid will also meet MPs to discuss the issue, while community leaders, advisory groups and representatives of the London Mayor will gather at Scotland Yard to discuss the killings.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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