Had Connor Chapman not just committed a crime so heinous and devastating, it would be laughable.
Only 10 minutes earlier, the masked gunman had opened fire outside the Lighthouse pub and killed Elle Edwards. Some eight-and-a-half miles away, he had made it to the sanctuary of Private Drive in Barnston and the home of his criminal ally Thomas Waring.
Perhaps thinking he was in the clear, Chapman pulled back the head covering he had used to disguise his distinctive long hair. And, as he revealed his identity, the Skorpion submachine gun used in the murder tumbled from his pocket into the street.
READ MORE: Shocking CCTV shows Chapman opening fire with submachine gun outside Lighthouse pub
Even more astonishingly, the blunder was recorded for posterity on a CCTV camera on one of the houses on the quiet residential street. The weapon skidded across the tarmac and Chapman scrambled to retrieve it before walking off towards Waring's house.
But the damage had been done. It was a catastrophic error that undoubtedly played a huge role in proving that he was the gunman.
Liverpool Crown Court previously heard that career criminal and self-confessed cocaine dealer Chapman lurked outside the busy pub for nearly three hours before carrying out the shooting. Elle was seen on CCTV inside the Lighthouse happily chatting with friends before going outside for a cigarette at 11.47pm.
Minutes later, the gunman emerged from the shadows and fired a volley of shots towards a group stood by the entrance to the Lighthouse with the military grade weapon. He then immediately went to the home of his 20-year-old "criminal associate", who was said to have taken custody of the gun before helping to torch the car a week later on New Year's Eve.
The intended targets of the shooting were said to have been Kieran Salkeld and Jake Duffy, the former having been stood next to "wholly innocent" Elle when 23-year-old Chapman unleashed his hail of bullets. She was struck twice in the head and once in the shoulder and died as a result of her injuries aged 26.
Jurors were told that this had been the culmination of an ongoing violent feud between rival gangs from Woodchurch and Beechwood, also known as the Ford Estate. The previous day, Salkeld and Duffy had been caught on a Ring doorbell camera dishing out a savage beating to Woodchurch OCG member Sam Searson on Highfield Road in Rock Ferry.
Earlier in the month, Curtis Byrne was shot on Orrets Meadow Road in Woodchurch. And Kieran Cowley was injured on a shooting - in which the same Glock pistol was used - on Newark Close in Noctorum, close to the address of a man called Mason Smith.
Duffy had previously been seen on CCTV in the process of carrying out a raid on an Amazon delivery truck inside a stolen Ford Kuga car which was used in the commission of the latter assault. Chapman had been linked to a burglary involving both Byrne and Smith in November 2022, in which two electric bikes were stolen from a shed at an address on Thirlmere Avenue in Noctorum.
Salkeld suffered organ damage after one bullet penetrated his chest during the Lighthouse shooting, while Duffy was shot in both legs. Three other "innocent bystanders" - Liam Carr, Harry Loughran and Nicholas Speed - were also struck and injured.
Chapman - of Houghton Road in Woodchurch - was yesterday convicted of murder by a jury of seven women and five men after three hours and 48 minutes of deliberations and following a three-and-a-half week trial. He was also found guilty of attempting to murder Salkeld and Duffy, wounding with intent against Mr Duffy and Mr Loughran, assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Mr Speed and possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
Waring was convicted of possession of a prohibited weapon and assisting an offender. Both will be sentenced this afternoon, Friday.
