A schoolboy watching Diwali fireworks saw a man wearing a Batman-style Joker mask running across his family’s garden shortly after a double shooting left two men dead in Ilford.
Police are continuing to hunt the gunman who shot dead two young men and left a third critically injured in the attack that was masked by Diwali fireworks.
Residents claimed the killer and his accomplices arrived on push bikes, opened fire and then escaped in a Ford Fiesta just after midnight on Henley Road, Ilford.
The schoolboy saw a man wearing a Batman-style Joker mask run across the garden, smashing through the fence into a neighbour’s property.
Two victims aged 23 and 30 were pronounced dead at the scene on Tuesday and the third, 30, remains in hospital fighting for life.
Friends named the murdered pair online as drill rappers “Giddy” and “Shifty”, part of the Drillford group who are locked in a turf war with Manor Park Gang rivals. The victims were said to have been of Somali descent.
Giddy posted a rap video to YouTube a year ago in which he threatened a rival. One person replied to it hours after the triple shooting: “Manor just turned up the heat” followed by a skull and crossbones emoji.
Overnight the OM hashtag, a nickname for the Manor Park gang, was posted on many of the freestyles he appeared on, including one called Scotland Yard.
Kashif Patel, 33, of Ilford, said his friends were acquaintances of the victims and the attack had been part of a targeted gangland assassination.
“It’s Ilford vs Manor Park, it’s rival gangs,” he told the Daily Mail.
Another neighbour said: “It’s a planned hit, it was an execution. They timed it because of the fireworks.”
The Metropolitan Police said families of both men have been informed but the force is not yet in a position to confirm their identities.
Shama Ahmad, 50, whose flat is just yards from where the two men were shot, said: “I heard some screaming, shouting, and I was a bit shaken by the screams but this is very common around by this area.
“I just looked from my window upstairs and the police and the helicopter above.
“There was fireworks going right in front of my flat, so with the fireworks the shots weren’t heard at all.
“There was this celebration, Diwali thing, going on, and fireworks so you couldn’t hear the shots.
“I live around the corner here and I’m a bit wary, me and my family are concerned about this.”
A large police cordon remains in place on the residential street, while forensic investigators comb the area for evidence.
A car linked to the shooting was recovered nearby in Ronnie Lane.
Detective Inspector Matt Read, from the Specialist Crime Command, believes a number of people were in the Henley Road house at the time. He called on those present to come forward “as a matter of urgency”.
Inspector Dave Holgate called the shooting “an appalling act of violence”, adding: “There are a number of crime scenes in place and we thank local residents for their understanding and co-operation while our forensic and specialist crime colleagues do their job.
“We understand that the community will quite rightly be shocked by this horrific incident, and we share in their concerns. However, I can assure that my dedicated colleagues are working at pace to collect evidence and identify the suspects.”
The double murder was the fifth killing within a ten-mile radius of east London in six days.
A manhunt continues for a man who fatally stabbed a mother and wounded her daughter in Stratford on Sunday morning.
Yoldana and Lauris Saldana, both known to the attacker, were found at a home in Windmill Lane. Yoldana, 53, died at the scene and Lauris, in her thirties, was taken to hospital. Police said her injuries are not life-threatening.
