Five men jailed for series of shootings in Yorkshire which left passing dog dead from bullet wounds

Appearing at Sheffield Crown Court, the defendants were each sentenced for offences relating to a number of shootings in the city, including one where a dog was critically injured and had to be put down.

The first shooting was reported in July 2020, when police were called to Abbeydale Road after numerous calls reporting shots being fired. There, they found a dog had suffered serious gunshot injuries. Its injuries were sadly unsurvivable and the dog had to be put down.

In August 2020, officers recovered a viable, loaded handgun that had been discarded in a bush on Lumley Street in Sheffield. Later that month, officers received reports that a house on Madehurst Gardens had been shot at, causing damage to the windows.

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Slater, from the South Yorkshire Police Armed Crime Team (ACT) said: “These incidents understandably caused a great deal of concern locally when they happened. After all, the use of a firearm is unbelievably dangerous that can result in significant injury or death.

“The incident on Abbeydale Road could so easily have resulted in a human being losing their life, though it is no less despicable that an innocent animal was caused such suffering unnecessarily.

“Thanks to the significant efforts and dedication of the Armed Crime Team, a number of individuals were identified through DNA and tied to these awful crimes.”

In September 2020, as part of a warrant in the Nether Edge area, officers recovered a second viable handgun, loaded with bullets, that had been hidden behind a wall. This firearm was forensically linked to three of the defendants.

Mohammed Maroof, 27, of HMP Lindholme, was sentenced to a further 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to possession of ammunition without a certificate. He is already serving a prison sentence after being convicted of possession of a prohibited firearm in earlier legal proceedings, in relation to the handgun that was recovered in August 2020.

Awais Ahmed, 23, of HMP Marshgate, was sentenced to five years in prison after entering a guilty plea to possession of a prohibited firearm.

Zaheer Ahmed, 26, of Derby Street, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of ammunition without a certificate in an earlier hearing. He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.

A fourth defendant, Qamar Nain, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a prohibited firearm and one count of possession of ammunition when prohibited.

In addition to being forensically linked to the recovered firearms and the shootings in 2020, Nain’s DNA was found on spent bullets recovered from a stolen car that was used in a further shooting in the Ecclesall Road area of the city in February last year.

In the early hours of Monday 7 February 2022, officers responded to reports that shots had been fired towards vehicles on Ecclesall Road, injuring one of the occupants.

Officers would later locate the stolen car in the Totley area and recovered a spent bullet casing inside. This casing was ballistically matched to the shooting and DNA recovered from the casing tied to Nain. Nain, of St Stephen’s Road, Rotherham, was sentenced to six years in prison.

DCI Slater continued: “This was another incredibly dangerous incident that was witnessed by a number of members of the public, to whom I am indebted for their calm response to what must have been a terrifying sight, calling police and passing on vital information that allowed us to identify those responsible.”

A fifth man, 24-year-old Akaash Iqbal, was also sentenced in court today.

Iqbal was linked to the firearm used in the shooting of the dog on Abbeydale Road, but then charged with additional firearms and drugs offences after a warrant was executed in the Ringinglow area of the city, as part of the wider investigation by ACT into armed criminality in the city.

Officers recovered quantities of cannabis, live shotgun cartridges and, hidden behind the oven in the kitchen, a single-barrelled shotgun.

In an earlier court hearing, Iqbal, of Fraser Road, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of ammunition without a certificate and possession with intent to supply a Class B drug (cannabis). He was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison.