Tommy Pitt, feared leader of the infamous Pitt Bull Crew, stands in the middle of a pitch black Crowcroft Park in Levenshulme. He loads a single bullet into a Smith & Wesson revolver.
'Is it your time?' he asks the badly beaten gang rival kneeling at his feet, placing the gun against his head. Pitt pulls the trigger. The hammer falls on empty chamber.
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But it's not over just yet. The young gangster is dragged to a secluded corner of the park, stripped naked and beaten to within an inch of his life with tubes and bricks. Remarkably he survives, his terrifying ordeal left to serve as a warning to others.
It's September 2000 and south Manchester has exploded in violence as the Pitt Bull Crew and rival gang the Longsight Crew fight a tit-for-tat turf war a judge would later describe as the 'fortnight of terror'.
Tommy Pitt had founded the Pitt Bull Crew three years earlier, soon after his release from a young offenders institution. He dedicated it to the memory of his brother Ray, leader of the Moss Side-based Doddington gang who was shot dead in 1995, aged just 20.
Doddington had made fortunes selling drugs in the city - and Tommy, described by a judge as an 'infinitely cruel' man who was 'obsessed with his own power and importance', wanted to pick up where his brother had left off.
Kidnap, torture and murder was his preferred way of doing business - and, even by the standards of turn of the century gangland Manchester, Pitt stood stood out for his brutality and propensity for extreme violence.
With access to a vast stash of weapons, including a Spanish 6.35 self-loading Bronco pistol, a sawn-off shotgun, an old-fashioned, 'cowboy'-style .357 revolver, Chinese-made Tokarev handguns and a MAC-10 sub-machine gun capable of firing up to 300 rounds per minute, that only he was allowed to use, he had the hardware to back up his ambition.
His MO was to recruit boys as a young as 14, who would ride around south Manchester on mountain bikes selling heroin and crack. Using police scanners to evade capture and wearing gloves to avoid fingerprints, the young dealers would always be in pairs - and at least one would always be armed.
Soon the money was rolling in - and that caught the attention of rival gang the Longsight Crew. They tried muscling in on the action by putting dealers on Pitt's turf, so he declared war.
It all came to a head in September 2000. South Manchester was about to become a bloodbath.
On September 3, 2000, rival Longsight Crew member Devon Bell, 22, was shot dead on Langport Avenue, Moss Side. A week later a shoot-out took place between the two gangs, although no-one was injured.
It was one of the first of at least 17 gun battles between the warring factions, which left four people injured and two dead.
Then, on the night of September 9, 2000, Pitt, armed with the MAC-10 came across two Longsight Crew members sat in a car on Fernbrook Close. He tried to shoot them, but the gun jammed and they drove off.
He began searching for other targets. A few minutes later and just around the corner he found Marcus Greenidge, 21, a drugs courier with the Longsight crew.
Greenidge was armed, but didn't have time to reach the loaded pistol in his pocket. He died in a hail of machine gun fire. Pitt later boasted: 'I've just whacked one of the Longsight crew boys. I struck with five bullets out of seven.'
That bloody September would see the death of one Tommy Pitt's henchmen. Only 16, Thomas Ramsey's life was a haze of guns and drugs. In July of that year he had shot a man in the legs with a sawn-off shotgun, and he was suspected of having murdered innocent father Judah Dewar, in 1999, when he was just 15, simply because he was driving a BMW 3 Series coupe.
On September 19 Ramsey was murdered, shot twice in the neck with the MAC-10. Suspicion fell on his gangland boss - Tommy Pitt.
Ramsey, aka 'Little Tommy', had been ordered by Pitt to move a gun which was hidden in a flat in Longsight.
The youngster forgot and on September 15, police had raided the flat and found the gun with Pitt's DNA on it - crucial evidence which would later lead to his downfall. Three days later Pitt Bull members broke into the flat and found the search warrant.
A day later, Ramsey was found dead - a copy of the search warrant found underneath his outstretched hand.
Pitt was charged with his murder, but acquitted. Less than a week after Ramsey's death, Pitt was himself shot, hit in the thigh by a hooded man on a mountain bike. He survived, but was arrested soon afterwards when one of his fellow gang members turned police informer.
Traces of gun residue were found on the combat trousers Pitt was wearing at time. But even with the gang boss out of the picture the violence continued.
Mohammed Ahmed, a taxi driver who was working as a courier for the Longsight crew, was ambushed while taking another Longsight crew member to a meeting. Two Pitt Bull crew members appeared on the scene and shot Ahmed four times in the head as he sat in his cab.
They then bundled his passenger into a stolen car and took him to a disused railway line in Longsight. He was shot with a sawn-off shotgun, doused with petrol and set alight. Remarkably he survived, although he suffered horrific burns.
On March 27, 2002, following a trial at Preston Crown Court, Pitt, then aged 24, was jailed for life for the murder of Marcus Greenidge and the attempted murders of three other men. He was also given a 15 year sentence for conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life, and a further 15 years for conspiracy to supply drugs.
James Pickup QC, prosecuting, said Pitt, who he described as 'instrumental' in everything the Pitt Bull Crew did, seemed to relish the gang warfare. "He was comfortable with violence. Indeed, he seems to have enjoyed involvement in the inter-gang rivalry. He was not one to be crossed."
Four years later the High Court ruled Pitt must serve at least 30 years in prison before being eligible for parole. Arguing for his sentence to be increased the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith QC, said Pitt exemplified the 'worst excesses of gangsterism'.
The ruling means Pitt will not be released until at least 2031.
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