A seven-year-old girl is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after a suspected driveby shooting outside a memorial service in north London, the Metropolitan police have said.
A second child, a 12-year-old girl, was taken to hospital with a minor leg injury but has now been discharged.
Officers also said three women – aged 48, 54 and 41 – were taken to hospital after the incident on Saturday afternoon in Phoenix Road, close to Euston station.
Detectives said it happened in the vicinity of a church, where a memorial was taking place for a mother and daughter who died within days of each other. Officers said the shots were believed to have been fired from a moving vehicle.
The women’s injuries are not thought to be life-threatening, but the 48-year-old suffered a potentially life-changing injury. Police later said a 21-year-old woman was also in hospital but they were awaiting updates on her condition.
No arrests have been made yet. Supt Ed Wells of the Met police said: “Any shooting incident is unacceptable, but for multiple people, including two children, to be injured in a shooting in the middle of a Saturday afternoon is shocking.
“Our thoughts are with all the victims, but in particular with the seven-year-old girl who is in a life-threatening condition and with her family.”
Father Jeremy Trood was conducting the joint service at St Aloysius Roman Catholic Church celebrating the lives of mother and daughter, Fresia Calderon, 50, and Sara Sanchez, 20.
They died within 25 days of each other late last year – Calderon from a blood clot after flying back to London from Colombia, and Sanchez, who was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May 2020, died shortly afterwards, according to MyLondon who interviewed Sanchez in April 2022.
Sanchez, her mother and her younger brother had travelled to Colombia last year to see family and friends for a “final goodbye” after she went into remission but relapsed twice. Private treatment for which the City and Islington College student raised more than £30,000 on a GoFundMe page had also failed.
The family had arrived back in London when Calderon collapsed in front of her children and died at the airport on 5 November 2022.
Trood said he had just concluded the requiem mass for the service when he heard shots outside the church as mourners began to leave.
“They started rushing back into the church after the incident,” he said, describing the terror of those present. “Our prayers go out to those in hospital”.
Jaouida Ifghallal, who was attending the service and said Sanchez had been her son’s girlfriend, described how the occupants of a black car opened fire on people, in an interview with MyLondon.
“We were all coming out of the church, dressed in white, about to release some doves. And the shooting happened as we were waiting for that.
“I didn’t see the car coming, but there was a big detonation. I just remember a woman falling on the floor and panic as people came out of the church.”
Responding to Saturday’s shooting on Twitter, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is also MP for the area, he was “deeply shocked”, and thanked emergency services for their response.
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the incident was “deeply distressing”, and expressed his support for those who were injured and their families.
I am deeply shocked by the shooting in Euston and want to thank the emergency services for their response. My thoughts are with the victims.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) January 14, 2023
Anyone with information should call 101, giving the reference 3357/14JAN or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Wells added: “An investigation into this dreadful attack is already well under way involving local officers and specialist detectives. I can assure the communities of Camden and beyond that we will do everything we possibly can to identify and bring to justice those who were responsible.”
Witnesses or anyone who has information about the incident have been urged to call 101, giving the reference 3357/14JAN.
Information can also be provided to Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
