The intended target of the shooting that killed nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool has been named as Joseph Nee, a 35-year-old burglar.
The girl and her mother Cheryl Korbel, 46, were both shot by an assailant in a black balaclava on Monday night when a man forced his way into their home on Kingsheath Avenue, Knotty Ash, as he desperately attempted to escape the unidentified attacker.
Ms Korbel and the fugitive sustained only minor wounds but the child died of her injuries while the target called friends to deliver him to hospital in an Audi rather than seek help.
A second man who was with Nee at the time has since been identified but it is not clear if he has been arrested.
Merseyside Police has declined to publicly identify the man hurt in the attack but said in a statement: “A 35-year-old man, suspected to have been the target of the shooting, has been detained in hospital on a prison recall after breaching the terms of his licence.
“He will be recalled to prison to serve the remainder of his licence. He will be further questioned in connection with the murder and remains in a stable condition.”
He was named by The Liverpool Echo as Nee, from the Dovecot area of the city, who was jailed by Liverpool Crown Court for six-and-a-half years in November 2009 for being a “lower level player” in a multi-million-pound drug trafficking ring.
He was jailed for another 45 months in 2018 after he and two other men led police on a 125mph high-speed chase.
Nee admitted two counts of burglary, two counts of theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous driving, driving without insurance and driving while disqualified.
The following year, Nee appeared in a series of Instagram photos where he appeared to be associating with inmates at HMP Kirkham who compared the jail to Butlins and boasted about their lifestyle.
Tributes including flowers and teddies have subsequently been left near the scene of the shooting amid widespread shock at Olivia’s death.
She went to St Margaret Mary’s Catholic Junior School in Huyton, where she was thought of as a kind-hearted, helpful and happy little girl, according to her headteacher Rebecca Wilkinson.
“Olivia was a much-loved member of our school. She had a beautiful smile, a lovely sense of humour and a bubbly personality,” Ms Wilkinson said.
“She was kind-hearted and would go out of her way to help others.”
Her death is one of three fatal shootings in the area in the space of a week and comes 15 years after 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead on his way home from football practice in Croxteth.
Detective chief superintendent Mark Kameen told the BBC: “We will do all we can to take all of these involved in gun crime off the streets, as this arrest demonstrates.
“This is not the time for anyone who knows who was responsible to stay silent.
“It is a time for us all to make Merseyside a place where the use of guns on our streets is totally unacceptable and those who use them are held to account.
“If you saw, heard, captured or know anything, tell us directly or anonymously and we will continue to act.”
Additional reporting by agencies
