Gangland murder attempt blamed for shooting of
Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine
Liverpool’s chief constable says death of girl at home
‘crosses every boundary’ and pledges major response to catch anyone involved
Vikram
Dodd, Mark Brown and Robyn Vinter
Tue 23 Aug
2022 20.27 BST
An
attempted public murder of a senior gang member caused a nine-year-old girl to
be mistakenly shot dead while being shielded by her mother inside her Liverpool
home, the Guardian has learned.
Olivia
Pratt-Korbel was standing directly behind her mother, Cheryl, who was trying to
keep the gunman out. Police said they believe the fleeing criminal saw a “chink
of light” as Olivia’s mother opened the door to see what the noise was – before
rushing in to escape his assailant.
But the
killer also burst into the house, having fired a shot that struck the mother in
the wrist before passing through her and into Olivia’s chest at about 10pm on
Monday night in the district of Dovecot. Once inside the home, the gunman fired
at the gang member again before fleeing.
Police
later arrived and rushed Olivia to Alder Hey children’s hospital, where she
died.
The crime
crossed “every boundary”, said Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of
Merseyside police. The girl’s family had been “torn apart” by the shooting and
were “absolutely devastated, inconsolable and heartbroken”.
Police
believe the 35-year-old intended victim is a well-known member of an organised
crime group whose main commodity is drugs.
He is
believed to have then called at least two associates on a mobile phone, who
pulled up in an Audi car and took him to hospital.
One senior
source said he escaped the house “like a coward”, walking past the dying Olivia
and her injured mother on the way out, having brought the carnage to them while
trying to save himself from a gangland execution. Detectives are now by his
hospital bedside and trying to talk to him. Armed officers are on standby to
arrest or shoot the gunman if he is located.
Bouquets of
flowers and heartfelt cards began to be left on Olivia’s street, Kingsheath
Avenue, on Tuesday.
A message
on one, placed close to the police tape, read “Words cannot describe how this
tragedy has turned this city upside down”, while a nearby card – written in
children’s handwriting – said: “To Olivia, I’m sorry you’re gone.”
A neighbour
said he saw the attack from his bedroom window and phoned the police.
“We
initially heard the shots and we looked out of the window, and we saw a lad
chasing someone down the road,” he said.
“Then the
gunman pushed the door and let himself in and then we heard another shot. It
was just all panic.”
Kennedy
told the Guardian extra armed officers had been rushed into the area from
around the north-west to head off any gangland reprisals after three fatal
shootings in a week – with two of those being innocent victims of organised
crime hits gone wrong.
She said
officers were also hunting the gang baron who ordered the hit in the street,
those who ferried the 35-year-old to hospital, whoever supplied the gun, and
anyone else connected with the killing.
Kennedy
told the Guardian: “It’s absolutely horrifying that a nine-year-old child has
not been safe in her own home. The 35-year-old man has seen the chink of light
as the door was opened and thought, ‘That is somewhere I can try to hide and
get away from the gunman’.“We absolutely cannot tolerate this level of
criminality and gun crime on our streets.”
But she
added that “history teaches us” gangs will be “looking for retribution”.
She said
police had “bucket of resources” and that “doors will be going in” – with raids
planned to disrupt reprisals and other gang activity.
Rebecca
Wilkinson, Olivia’s headteacher at St Margaret Mary’s Catholic junior school in
Huyton, said the whole school community was in shock and disbelief.
“Olivia was
a much-loved member of our school. She had a beautiful smile, a lovely sense of
humour, and a bubbly personality. She was kind-hearted and would go out of her
way to help others. She loved to perform and recently participated in the
school production of The Wizard of Oz.”
The
shooting came 15 years to the day since the murder of Rhys Jones, an 11-year-old
boy who was caught in the crossfire of criminals and shot dead in Croxteth Park
on his way home from football practice. That should have been “a watershed
moment in the battle against gun crime and the use of guns on our streets”,
said Kennedy.
Kennedy
said the gunman started “firing a number of shots with complete disregard for
Olivia and her family who had no connection with the gunman or the man who
forced his way in”.
Kennedy
appealed to criminals to come forward given the horrific nature of the crime.
She said: “All boundaries have been crossed in this one. I have appealed to the
criminal fraternity, to say you know who has done this, please come forward.”
DCS Mark
Kameen, the head of investigations at Merseyside police, said the gunman was
wearing a peaked cap, a black balaclava, black padded jacket and black gloves.
He was about 5ft 7in and of slim build.
Olivia’s
killing is the latest involving guns and knives in Merseyside over the last
week.
Police are
continuing to investigate the fatal shooting on Sunday of 28-year-old Ashley
Dale, an environmental health officer at Knowsley council. She was found
wounded in the back garden of her home in Old Swan, Liverpool, and died later
in hospital. Dale was not the intended target and it may have been a case of
mistaken identity, detectives said.
Joanne
Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool, said: “Fifteen years to the day that Rhys
Jones was murdered, another innocent child of our city becomes a victim to gun
crime. Has nothing been learned? Enough is enough. This is an appalling act of
evil. If you know something, you must come forward. Guns have no place in our
communities.”
Paula
Barker, the MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said she was horrified by the killings.
“It is just mindless violence … it is just unspeakable,” she told BBC Radio 4.
“A nine-year-old child has lost her life. This is not OK. We have to bring
these people to justice. It can’t drag on for years the way it did with poor
Rhys Jones.”
Steve Rotheram,
the metro mayor for Liverpool city region, said he was “absolutely sickened”
and “in utter disbelief that another innocent child has lost their life to
senseless gun crime in our region”.
“Exactly 15
years since our region was shaken to its very core by the tragic death of
11-year-old Rhys Jones, this devastating loss of another innocent child’s life
shows us just how much work there’s still to do in the fight against gun
crime,” he said.
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