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.
