Throughout 2022 senior officers in Merseyside Police grew increasingly alarmed by the escalating violence and bloodshed on certain estates across the Wirral.
In a sense, the horrors of Christmas Eve were an entirely predictable outcome of reckless, petty gang thugs letting off guns in residential areas with increasing regularity. However, that still did not dampen the shock and impact of the murder of 26-year-old Elle Edwards.
The popular beautician, from New Brighton, was caught by a stray bullet as she stood in front of the Lighthouse Inn pub, in Wallasey Village, shortly before midnight. As Elle, her sister and her friends were enjoying themselves inside, they had no idea a gunman with murderous intentions was lurking in a black Mercedes in the carpark, where he remained for around an hour before the shooting started.
