Afternoon:
10°c
A shot rings out and Rhys falls to the ground dead
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent9 Oct 2008
Jurors watched in horror today as CCTV was played of the moment schoolboy Rhys Jones was shot dead.
The 11-year-old could be clearly seen turning as a shot rings out, then a split second later crashing to the ground.
Rhys had been walking home from football training when he strayed into the line of fire of a gang shooting in Liverpool.
The CCTV footage, lasting a few seconds, was played to the jury at Liverpool crown court where Sean Mercer, 18, of Croxteth, denies murder.
Moments earlier Rhys's mother, Melanie Jones, had wept as film was shown of her son walking home, blithely unaware of the death trap awaiting him.
She had also seen CCTV of the hooded gunman cycling towards the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth to attack three members of a rival gang before having to leave the court.
Computer graphics, generated from eyewitness accounts, recreated the image of alleged gunman Mercer, standing astride his bike pointing his gun. He fired three shots at his intended victims, the court heard.
The first smashed the rear window of a BMW car in the pub car park, the second hit Rhys in the back and the third struck the wall of a disused well.
The TV images were played at the opening of the trial of Mercer and five others over the shooting of Rhys in August last year.
The five alleged members of his Croxteth Crew gang deny charges of assisting him in a cover-up operation.
Neil Flewitt, prosecuting, told the court the tragic death of the football-loving schoolboy was just one more example of the “mindless” violence of Liverpool's gang warfare.
Mercer had allegedly been aiming at three members of the rival Strand Gang or Nogga Dogs from nearby Norris Green. They had been in a feud involving 70 outbreaks of violence, including shootings and a murder, in three years. Mr Flewitt played CCTV showing the three intended victims entering the “hostile environment” of Croxteth, apparently to borrow a bicycle.
The gunman, dressed all in black and on a black bike, opened fire with a Smith & Wesson .455 across the car park on a warm summer's evening.
Mr Flewitt said: “There is evidence that as the intended targets had moved after the first shot, the gunman had to move his position to follow them and brought Rhys into the line of fire.”
Mr Flewitt told the jury that many people had been outside the pub enjoying the evening sunshine and had seen the arrival of the gunman and heard the shots fired.
“Although none of the witnesses recognise the gunman, many of them were able to describe him,” said the QC.
“The overwhelming impression gained by the witnesses was that the gunman was a pale young man dressed mainly in black.” Within moments of Rhys being struck down, his mother raced to his side, the court heard.
When paramedics arrived, Rhys was already in cardiac arrest and although taken to Alder Hey Hospital he was declared dead later that evening.
Pathologists found that a bullet had passed through his back just above his left shoulder and had exited through the front of his neck.
CCTV footage was also shown of the gunman firing and recoiling three times from the force of the weapon.
Three days after the shooting Mercer was arrested for the first time and claimed he had been at the home of his friend, 16-year-old defendant K, at the time of the shooting.
Mr Flewitt told the jury that although there was evidence that Mercer may have been telling the truth about his movements before the arrival of the gunman at the pub “there is evidence to contradict his alibi for the time of the murder”.
The trial continues.
