Officers are looking for three men after a woman was shot at an address in Liverpool.
A woman in her 50s was rushed to hospital after being shot in the leg in a house on Deverell Grove, Wavertree just after 12.15am on Tuesday, April 26. A woman who knows the family told the ECHO that the victim was 'lying on the couch watching TV' when the gunman burst in.
The gunman entered the home looking for someone and Merseyside Police believe shots were fired as he was leaving, one of which hit the victim in the leg. The offender then escaped on a motorbike with two other males and it is believed the motorbike was driven down Mill Lane, towards Edge Lane.
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The victim is still in hospital, where she remains in a stable condition.
Merseyside Police have been at the scene in Wavertree carrying out forensic examinations. Increased patrols and house-to-house inquiries are also underway, while officers will also be looking at CCTV from the area to identify the offender, who was not seen by the victim.
Chief Inspector Matthew Moscrop spoke to the ECHO at Merseyside Police HQ about the status of the investigation and urged any witnesses to come forward with information. He told the ECHO: "We’ve got the detectives out at the moment speaking to people, trying to find out more information about what happened last night.
“We’ve got a good idea about the course of events, but we’re just trying to get as much information as we can from the community, from people out and about, from CCTV, from dash-cam footage, from any information about this, in particular anyone who saw three people who were hanging around that area - two on a bike perhaps, or a motorbike, who left the area shortly after the firearm was discharged.”
“The motorbike headed off Mill Lane towards Edge Lane, but clearly there are an awful lot of opportunities around there, so we’ve got quite a broad scope of the CCTV that we’re looking at, so anyone who saw a motorbike, electric bike, with a couple of people on at around 12.15am, we do need to hear from them.”
The incident follows a number of gun crime incidents across Merseyside since the start of the year. Two shootings took place within days of each other last week - as Rosalind Way in Kirkdale and Birch Grove in Wavertree both saw shots fired.
Additionally, there were three shootings in March alone. Police made multiple arrests in relation to the shooting of a 15-year-old girl at a bus stop on Upper Warwick Street in Toxteth on March 1. On March 20, a man was shot in the face on Croxteth Hall Lane and two days later, on March 22, a man was shot multiple times in a drive-by style attack on Hoole Road in Woodchurch.
Chief Inspector Moscrop wished to calm any fears people may have about firearms incidents, which are at a 20-year low in Merseyside. He said: " We understand that people get concerned about incidents like this, but we need people to know that firearms discharges in Merseyside are at a 20 year low, so these are uncommon incidents.
"However, a single one is too much. So, we’ll have plenty of police out and about, obviously as part of the investigation, but also to reassure people and to try and get things back to normal around there. We’ve also got the mobile police station out and about, so we do ask people to come and speak to us. If you’re concerned or if you’ve got information, please speak to the officers."
He continued: " Any of these incidents concern us and we’re aware that there have been a few incidents recently. We don’t think that points to a wider change and we certainly hope not.
"We’ve got a firearms investigation team that focuses on this and, as we saw last year when we had a few discharges elsewhere in the city, there was an investigation into that which led to a number of people being charged, so we’ve got a very good track record when it comes to getting to the bottom of what was going on."
Asked about the next steps for the police investigation and what people living in Wavertree can expect over the coming days, the chief inspector said: " We’ll maintain the police presence around there.
"There will be a visible presence and there will be other officers targeting their activities towards people of interest in this investigation, whether that’s in the Wavertree area or beyond, so wherever that investigation takes us, we’ll make sure we do what we can to keep people safe."
