Police arrest a third teenager in relation to the murder of Rhys Jones

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A 16-year-old teenager has been arrested over the murder of Rhys Jones, police said tonight.

Officers arrested the youth from the local area this afternoon and he is being questioned on suspicion of murder.

The arrest comes after a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old were released on bail yesterday.

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Rhys's parents Melanie and Stephen Jones visit the spot where their son was killed

A police spokesman also confirmed that an abandoned bicycle had been found in Liverpool, in an area with a different postcode from the shooting, which was being examined.

Officers also confirmed descriptions of the killer's firearm, describing it as a black handgun with a long barrel.

Speaking after the latest arrest was made public, a police source said: "Rhys was not involved in any form of gang.

"We are categorising this as a Category A-plus homicide, the most serious investigation to take on.

"We have made some arrests but this could be a protracted investigation. Another arrest was made today but further inquiries are ongoing and further arrests possible.

"We're at a very early stage. The 16-year-old boy was arrested this afternoon in the local area and held on suspicion of murder as part of the ongoing investigation.

"The murder weapon is described variously by witnesses as a black handgun with a long barrel.

"We don't know what the motive was.

"We are looking into the background of the football match but keeping a completely open mind."

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A policeman inspects a car window smashed by a bullet fired at Rhys Jones

The developments come after Rhys's parents this afternoon delivered a bouquet of flowers to a spot marking their son's death.

Rhys's father Stephen and mother Melanie Jones today laid a simple bouquet of blue roses and gerberas at the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth where Rhys died.

The flowers carried a message which read: "Goodnight and God bless son, till we meet again. All our love and kisses, from mum, dad and Owen."

The family arrived at the scene after a Liverpool City council director said there was a small minority of children in Croxteth who were "wannabe" gangsters.

Stuart Smith, executive director of children's services, said some of the children in Croxteth were attracted to a gang lifestyle which they viewed as "glamorous".

More than 300 police officers and gun crime specialists are hunting for the killer of 11-year-old Rhys.

The massive scale of the operation emerged today as detectives said the person they are looking for could be as young as 13.

He was described as a slim white boy around 5ft 8ins tall. He was riding a black BMX bike and was wearing dark clothes, including a hooded top with a peak, and white trainers.

A witness today said the boy was carrying a 'big handgun' when he rode up to where Rhys was having a kick about with friends in the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, on Wednesday evening.

The killer held the gun in both hands and fired three shots, one of which hit Rhys in the back of the neck.

Rhys's mother Melanie, 41, who cradled him as he died, and father Stephen pleaded for information to find the youth.

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Happy memories: One of the last pictures taken of murdered schoolboy Rhys Jones on a family holiday in Spain

Wiping away tears, 41-year-old Mrs Jones said: "Someone knows who did it and I know people must be frightened, but please come forward.

"It could be their son, their brother next time because it will happen again if he is not caught."

In a direct appeal to the killer, she pleaded: "Give yourself up."

Conservative leader David Cameron today called for the creation of a 'social covenant' saying Rhys's death should not just be allowed to become "another testimony of despair".

Many residents on the Croxteth Park Estate, which was formerly the biggest private housing estate in western Europe, have spoken about living increasingly in the shadow of gun crime.

One man said Rhys was walking across the car park when a gunman cycled down a path on the other side of the pub.

"He just stopped and straddled the bike and shot through the car first, then another two shots. It's just callous how he did it.

"My mate was stood outside and he said it could have been anyone but it looked like he aimed at the lad. It was a handgun, a big handgun."

Mr Jones, a 44-year-old retail manager with Tesco, said: "We are devastated, we have lost our world, the world has lost a good guy.

"It's just horrendous - it's just your worst nightmare."

Everton FC manager David Moyes has made an appeal for information on Toffees season ticket holder Rhys's death

Everton FC manager David Moyes and club captain Phil Neville have joined the appeal for information following the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones.

The football-mad youngster, who was shot dead in Croxteth, Liverpool, was an Everton season ticket holder along with his father Stephen, 44, and brother, Owen, 17.

As a mark of respect, the club's players will wear black armbands and 40,000 fans will hold a minute's silence ahead of Saturday's home game with Blackburn at Goodison Park.

Mr Moyes said: "I would ask anybody who has any idea at all about the shooting to come forward.

"This is a terrific city and everybody here is desperate the find out who did this.

"Nobody deserves to lose their 11-year-old son, and anyone who knows anything about this should get in touch with the police right way.

"It is something we are all bitterly saddened about, we feel so much for the family, and this needs to be sorted out quickly. It is something that should not be allowed to happen in this city."

Mr Neville added: "Everyone at Everton, and the players especially, send our condolences to the Jones family after the tragic death of their son Rhys.

"We all here at the club have families of our own, and we cannot comprehend what you are going through. We appeal to anyone with information to contact the police."

Stephen Jones said he felt his son would still want him to go to the game on Saturday. His mother Melanie said she could not go because she would not be able to face looking at his empty seat.

Rhys was shot dead at 7.30 on Wednesday night in broad daylight by a teenager wearing a hoodie and riding a BMX bike in the car park of the Fir Tree pub.

He was on his way home after a soccer training session. Police last night released on bail two teenagers, aged 14 and 18, who were arrested earlier yesterday.

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Flowers and tributes have been left outside the Firtree pub where Rhys Jones was murdered

They refused to speculate on the motive for what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called as a "heinous crime."

But for his parents the motive meant little as they struggled to come to terms with a moment of gun madness that has devastated them and their older son Owen, 17.

Mrs Jones told how one of her son's soccer coaches knocked at her door and said Rhys had been shot.

She said: "I got the to car park and he was unconscious and he didn't come round. I wasn't able to say anything to him.

"He was lying there in a pool of blood. The paramedics tried for an hour and a half to resuscitate him but his little body couldn't take it. He'd just lost too much blood."

Mr Jones told how he heard the news. He said: "Last night, when I was on my way to work, I got a telephone call from my wife. I thought pellet gun, whatever."

"I turned around and got to Croxteth Park and there was police everywhere. I thought, 'God, what's happened here?'."

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Devastated: Rhys's mother Melanie breaks down as she begs for help in catching her son's killer

The horror-struck father at first went to the wrong hospital before travelling to Alder Hey in Liverpool, where doctors were trying desperately to save his son's life.

He said: "I got to Alder Hey and went in to the major trauma room. There was my son lying on his back, bleeding, trying to be resuscitated by the doctors there.

"They did a fantastic job but he's gone. We got taken to the bereavement suite. You go to see him, you hold him and cuddle him. The guy's only 11, he's only 11."

"Whoever has done it, they just need to be caught. I would never, ever want to put anyone through what I went through last night, walking into that trauma room, seeing my son in pools of blood, fighting for his life. It's not real, it's not on."

Mr Jones told of the agony of returning home. He said: "I went to his room where he should be asleep, opened his wardrobe, his school uniform that we have bought for senior school, his pens and pencils, are there unopened.

"His calculator is there unopened, his shoes are still in the box, his trainers are still in the box. It's just horrific, your worst nightmare.

"His wall is a shrine. The curtains are Everton, the wallpaper is Everton. It's just Everton. He slept and breathed football."

Rhys played for the Fir Tree pub's under-12 team side and his mother said: "He has been in the team all last year and they train once a week. He was a good left-footer, there's not many of them around."

She said it would be too painful to attend the Everton game on Saturday - the family all have season tickets. "I can't go," said Mrs Jones, "I can't sit next to an empty seat."

She said that on the night he died Rhys walked up to the field for soccer training but came back as he had forgotten his subs.

Mrs Jones said: "He ran all the way home to get them and I shouted at him: 'Why didn't you leave it until Saturday?' Then I drove him back up there,"

One eye witness, a 42-year-old business man who did not wish to be named, described the scene as Rhys lay in his mother's arms, his life ebbing away.

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Tragic: Rhys's parents appeal for help

He said Mrs Jones knelt on the floor, her trousers soaked in blood, She was was whispering, "Stay with us son," to him over and over again.

The man went on: "I saw a teenager on a bicycle pull up, he was 20 yards from me.

"I heard a bang and thought it was a firework, then as we looked round, he fired two more shots.

"He held both hands up, he never flinched. The victim had on his football boots and a bag on his shoulder. He fell to the ground on his back and I ran to him.

"Girls were screaming. He was looking up and trying to speak but he couldn't get his words out."

Rhys's parents said there was no way their son would have been mixed up with the gangs they had seen in the past hanging around the estate.

Mr Jones said: "There are gangs but I have taken the dog for a walk at night and they have never given me any problems. We are talking about 10-15 teenagers and I have never had any hassle.

"Rhys steered clear of gangs." Mrs Jones added: "He would not have known about gangs. He was only 11. He had a thing in school about them. He was a very bright and sensible lad."

His father added: "If there was anyone he didn't know he would steer clear of them anyway."

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Scene of tragedy : Rhys Jones was playing only a short distance from his home when he was shot dead on the Croxteth estate, which consists of nearly 4,000 houses

Their engineer Tony Ainscough, whose son Lewis, nine, was a close friend of Rhys, said: "He was an absolutely brilliant little lad, an innocent little kid.

"There was no way he had anything to do with gangs and people need to know that.

"He was into normal kids' stuff, playing tick, football or on the PlayStations."

Rhys had been due to start at Fazakerley High School next month and the day before he died he went with his mother to buy the school's uniform tie. Kelly Martin, whose daughter Olivia went to school with Rhys, served them at the local schools outfitter.

She said: "Mel and I were talking. I said I can't believe they have grown up so quickly and are going to senior school."

The youngster's death left staff and pupils at Broad Square Primary School in "a deep state of shock."

Headmistress Elaine Spencer said: "Rhys was a really lovely boy, he was extremely popular with everybody who knew him. He was friendly, outgoing and mad about football.

"He was so passionate about football and talked about being the next David Beckham."

"He was also very bright and had just done very well in his SATs. He had a wonderful future ahead of him and it is absolutely terrible that it seems his life has been cut short because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Heartbroken friends went to the scene of the killing yesterday to lay flowers, a teddy bear and a floral tribute of the Everton crest.

Daniel O'Brien, wearing a Liverpool shirt, said: "He always had a smile on his face, you would never see him sad. He was a great lad. He was there when you were crying and he would cheer you up.

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Football fan: Murdered 11-year-old Rhys Jones is pictured on the far left in this youth football team picture

"If you didn't have any sweeties he would always share his with you."

The boys said Rhys had never been in trouble. Connor Irwin said: "If someone confronted him at school he would just walk away, I don't think he ever had a fight."

Everton Football Club sent condolences to the Jones family yesterday and midfield star Tim Cahill spoke of his shock and sadness.

He said: "It's unthinkable that a young kid enjoying a game of football with his friends can end up being killed. We know Rhys was a fan and he is in all the players thoughts.

"I hope that whoever carried out this act is brought to justice. It's such a tragic waste of a young life."

The Croxteth Park estate, which is home to 10,000, has increasingly been the scene of tit-for-tat shootings. Two years ago Merseyside police set up a specific unit named Matrix to tackle the issue.

The area around the Fir Tree was designated a "dispersal zone" which lets officers move on groups of youths.

David Saville, chairman of the Croxteth Country Park Residents' Association, said the community had been promised a mobile police station or POD on the pub car park last year, but the plans were withdrawn.

He said: "The idea was to have a police presence between 8am and 12pm but in May we were told it wasn't going to happen.

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The Firtree pub in Croxley, where the 11-year-old was playing football in a car park when he was shot

"Apparently, the police couldn't resource it and we are getting a street camera in October instead. But it is all too little, too late.

"We said someone was going to have to die before the authorities did anything and now they have. If that POD had been there this little lad would not have lost his life."

Two teen suspects freed on bail

Two teenagers who were arrested over the death of Rhys Jones were released on bail last night.

Police are still refusing to speculate on a motive for the murder of the 11-year-old.

One theory being investigated is that he was caught in the "crossfire" of a revenge attack.

The suburb north of Liverpool city centre where he lived and died, Croxteth, is blighted by tit-for-tat gang killings.

One of the arrested youths, a 14-year-old, is the son of a postal worker and lives less than two miles from the scene of the murder.

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Rhys Jones: shot dead by a hoodie on a BMX bike

His father said the arrest was "all a big mistake." The other suspect is 18. Rhys was shot in broad daylight at the Fir Tree pub car park on Wednesday night.

He was hit in the neck by one of three shots fired from a hand gun by his killer, described as white and aged 13-15. He died less than a mile from his home in Croxteth Park.

The murder came just hours before the first anniversary of the killing of Liam Smith.

The 19-year-old, an alleged member of the Norris Green Strand Crew, was shot dead by members of the rival Croxteth Crew as he walked out of Altcourse Prison, Merseyside, on August 23 last year.

Yesterday, three members of the gang were convicted of Smith's murder. Residents in the neighbouring suburbs, north of Liverpool city centre, said they feared reprisals for his killing. They said the rival crews had been squaring up to each other for the past fortnight.

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Tributes were laid to Rhys by friends at the scene of his death

Shortly before Rhys's murder, members of the Strand Crew had been seen hanging around shops in Croxteth Park, territory "ruled" by their rivals.

Although gang shootings in recent years have been related to turf wars over drugs, locals say this is no longer the case.

They say the gangs are run by younger and younger members who are killing or wounding others simply for failing to show respect.

Sources close to the police investigation said they were 'keeping an open mind' and were hoping CCTV would provide a breakthrough in their investigation.

 

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