This is the damning footage showing a gun-toting thug hanging from the window of a BMW as a petty rival gang feud spilled out onto the street. An innocent member of the public was caught up in the mindless violence - narrowly escaping with their life as a bullet hit their car.
In broad daylight, Sean Cowie, 32, fires a handgun twice on a Tuesday afternoon in Newton Heath.. Detectives said someone could easily have been killed.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard that 39-year-old David Urey was behind the wheel of the BMW. The pair were then followed by Paul Ryan, 42 who was in another VW Golf, and the chase continued along Droylsden Road towards Ashton before the three cars split up.
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The shooting came as part of an ongoing dispute between two gangs. And was committed in retaliation after those in the Golf they chased had ‘very badly beaten up’ a friend of theirs, the court was told.
The gun was supposed to be ‘waved as a warning’ and not fired, Ryan claimed.
"Somebody quite easily could have been killed on that day," Detective Inspector Claire Moss told the Manchester Evening News. "An innocent member of the public who was on his way home from work has had his vehicle hit.
"There were people wandering around on the streets. Bullets could have ricocheted off anything, they could have hit anybody.
"He's (Cowie) in a moving vehicle, not experienced in the use of firearms so those bullets could have gone anywhere."
Cowie was jailed for five years and seven months, Urey for five years and four months and Ryan was sentenced to six-and-a-half years.
"This was broad daylight on a busy road in Greater Manchester," sentencing judge Angela Neild said.
"Greater Manchester, particularly the city centre area, and this was not very far at all from the city centre, has sadly been no stranger to the use of guns in the course of commission of crime, often while there are rival gangs competing for whatever prize of a criminal nature might be at stake at any one time.
"That bullet could have gone anywhere."
Prosecutor Olivia Beesley told how the shooting unfolded in a busy area in the centre of Newton Heath. She said: “At around 1.40pm on January 19, 2021, Cowie was a rear passenger in the BMW which was being driven by Urey.
"Ryan was a passenger in the VW Golf which was following the BMW. Captured on CCTV, they are seen driving along Old Church Street in the direction of Culcheth Lane.
"Travelling along Great Newton Street, another individual was driving a VW Golf before it turned onto Old Church Street. At the junction with Briscoe Lane, both vehicles turned and a thin black object was pulled out of the rear side passenger window. It was not possible to say who held that object at the time.
"CCTV captured both cars travelling along Briscoe Lane, at that point the gun was discharged with Cowie leaning out of the rear side of the BMW pointing the gun in the direction of the car ahead. The area was described by police as a busy, built up area."
A passing Hyundai, driven by a man on his way home from work, was hit by one of the shots at the rear left side of the vehicle. The VW Golf carrying Ryan then joined up with the BMW before the three cars left the scene.
Ryan said he thought the gun in the BMW was to be shown to those in the Golf as a ‘warning’. He also revealed he was also given a shotgun from the Golf, and ordered to take it inside his house to hide it from the police.
Ryan claimed he was unaware the gun had been fired until later, as there was an ‘unwritten agreement’ to cause fear of violence by waving it instead of discharging it.
Cowie, Urey and Ryan were all arrested in the days following. On January 21, police found a sawn-off shotgun at Ryan's house, which had his DNA on the trigger.
Cowie's barrister described the shooting as a 'stupid mistake'. Barry Grennan said: "I don’t accept he was on a jaunt of his own, it was a joint enterprise. It was something to do with a friend of theirs being very badly beaten up by people in the car they were chasing after. It was meant to frighten them off."
For Ryan, David Bentley said: “The shotgun was put into possession of Mr Ryan a short time before he got into the Golf which travelled to the area where it met up with the BMW and the gunshot was fired.
"His character references speak of a person quite different from these offences. His mother died suddenly, his father had a heart attack and he found it very difficult - he took to drugs and alcohol and merged into the pattern which resulted in these events.”
And for Urey, Chudi Grant said: “It was a joint enterprise, he was the driver - he clearly involved himself. There is no suggestion he was involved in the long standing run-up to this. He is illiterate, but was working by renting inflatables to others, and before that he was working in construction as a road digger.”
DI Moss said there had been a 'dispute' in the run up to the shooting. "There is a little bit of CCTV footage of them having some confrontation earlier on in the afternoon," she said.
"Out of nowhere, there have been two vehicles driving at high speed. A BMW chasing the Golf vehicle then you can quite clearly see on the CCTV footage a male hanging out of the back of the vehicle, who is Sean Cowie, with the firearm that was discharged.
"Two bullet cases were recovered so as far as we know, he has discharged the firearm twice.
"The target vehicle, the victims never came forward, and we only had the one call from the member of the public whose vehicle was hit by the bullet.
"He saw the cars racing then stopped and saw the damage to his car which he thinks looks like a bullet hole. There was a bullet head in the bumper of his car."
She added: "If somebody is prepared to fire a bullet out of a moving vehicle indiscriminately in the middle of the day in a built-up area then they're clearly very dangerous people that need to be taken off the streets."
Cowie, of Hardman Lane, Failsworth; Urey, of Ten Acres Lane, Newton Heath; and Ryan, of Ashton Road East, Failsworth; all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and Ryan pleaded guilty to a separate offence of possession of a prohibited firearm.
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