A man banged on the door of a house and begged the occupant to "ring an ambo" after being shot in the leg.
The shootings of Curtis Byrne and Kieran Cowley were one of a series of events which led up to the murder of Elle Edwards, Liverpool Crown Court has heard. Jurors in the trial of Connor Chapman - who is alleged to have been the gunman who shot and killed the beautician outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey, Wirral, on Christmas Eve - were today told further details of incidents which are said to have formed part of a violent feud which had been ongoing between rival groups from the Woodchurch and Beechwood estates.
Reading a series of agreed facts to the jury of seven women and five men, prosecution junior Katy Appleton described the shootings of both men. She said that Merseyside Police had received reports of gunshots being fired on Newark Close in Noctorum shortly before 9.15pm on December 18 and an injured man, Cowley, crashing into a house.
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A woman who placed a 999 call also stated she had seen a "male in a black hoodie holding a small handgun". Officers attended and located a black Mercedes SUV at the scene.
Cowley presented at Arrowe Park Hospital at 9.40pm with a towel wrapped around his arm, stating that he had been stabbed. But Ms Appleton said: "He had, in fact, been shot."
He would go on to tell police that he had been at a friend's house having a takeaway and watching Christmas film Home Alone 2. But, upon leaving, a "jeep full of males" was said to have pulled up alongside him.
Cowley stated that he had tried to squeeze his car past a set of bollards at this point, but crashed. The men then got out of the other vehicle and "approached both sides of his vehicle, and all he could hear were loud noises".
He then "curled up in a ball to protect himself", saying he "did not know who was responsible or why he was targeted". CCTV footage showed one offender smashing the windscreen with a pole before running away, with others also seen damaging the car.
Spent bullet casings discovered nearby and in the car itself allowed police to identify the firearm used as being a Glock-type self-loading pistol. This same weapon had also been used during the shooting of Byrne on Orrets Meadow Road in Woodchurch on the evening of December 3, 2022.
Ms Appleton also outlined details of this incident, with a caller having reported "hearing gunshots and someone screaming" shortly after 8pm. Another neighbour "heard a loud bang which sounded like a gunshot" before an "unknown male" knocked on their door shouting: "Help me, ring an ambo."
Byrne was shot in the right leg and taken to Aintree Hospital. However, he "refused to assist the investigation".
Footage recovered from nearby addresses showed the shooter travelling on a motor scooter, although he "has not and cannot be identified". Crime scene investigators recovered another bullet casing in the vicinity, which led to it being established that the same gun had been used in the shooting of Cowley 15 days later.
A Ford Kuga which was said to have been "responsible" for the second attack was torched shortly after midnight on December 19. Jake Duffy, one of the supposed targets of the Lighthouse pub shooting, had been seen in this stolen vehicle two days previously as he and two other men used it to steal parcels from an Amazon van.
Both he and Kieran Salkeld, who was also injured in the Christmas Eve incident, were then caught by a Ring doorbell dishing out a savage beating to Sam Searson on December 23 2022. The video - which was played to the jury - showed them raining down a flurry of punches, kicks and stamps in the front yard of a terraced house on Highfield Road in Rock Ferry, causing the complainant "severe" facial injuries.
Nigel Power KC previously told the jury during the prosecution's opening on Tuesday that Ms Edwards had been the "wholly innocent" victim of a feud between criminal groups based in Woodchurch and Beechwood, also known as the Ford Estate. The court heard that her killer had loitered outside the Lighthouse for around three hours before opening fire.
CCTV footage showed Elle smoking a cigarette outside the pub when the gunman stepped out from behind a row of parked cars and pulled the trigger of a Skorpion submachine gun. The 26-year-old was seen falling to the ground after being hit in the head by two of 12 bullets discharged.
This was said to have been a botched assassination attempt by Chapman on Salkeld and Duffy, who is alleged to have then sped off in a stolen Mercedes A Class and travelled to the home of his "associate" Thomas Waring on Private Drive in Barnston - where he remained for several hours before his "associate" called him a taxi back to his home on Houghton Road in Woodchurch at around 5am on Christmas Day. Mr Power said: "What otherwise might have been viewed as a random or inexplicable shooting of a wholly innocent woman, Elle Edwards, was in fact the culmination of an ongoing feud between people from the Woodchurch Estate and people from the Ford Estate - which included Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, who were the intended victims of the shooting."
Chapman denies murdering Ms Edwards, the attempted murder of Duffy and Salkeld, wounding with intent against fellow casualties Liam Carr, Harry Loughran and Nicholas Speed and possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life. The 23-year-old has pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods in relation to the Mercedes which was used by the perpetrator and later burnt out in the Frodsham area on New Year's Eve.
Waring is also said to have kept the firearm after Chapman visited his home and helped to torch the car. The 20-year-old has appeared alongside him in the dock after pleading not guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon and assisting an offender.
He has admitted failing to comply with a disclosure notice, having refused to provide police with the pin number to his mobile phone. The trial continues, and is expected to last up to four weeks.
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