Until Tuesday, no parent, partner or sibling was forced to face the news their loved one had been shot dead in the streets of Merseyside for more than a year.
In the past five years, local criminals have become either increasingly reluctant to pull the trigger, or less able to lay their hands on guns, than at any point in the last two decades. In the 2021 calendar year, there were 43 shootings recorded on Merseyside, the lowest in 21 years.
So far this year, there have been 35 firearms discharges, in line with the 36 recorded at the same stage last year. To put those numbers into context, between April 2018 and April 2019, there were 80 firearms discharges in Merseyside, itself a figure that was down from 91 in 2017/18.
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As senior officers in Merseyside Police are keen to stress, 43 shootings in a year still represents a significant challenge. Fear and disquiet ripples in the minds of anyone who discovers gun-wielding thugs have opened fire near their homes.
The ECHO spoke to senior officers in Merseyside Police about the tragic events of this week and the work that has resulted in stark reductions in shootings.
Any time shots are fired in a residential area, tragedy is all too likely. At 11.40pm on Tuesday night, the 12 month hiatus from gun murders in Merseyside came to an abrupt end.
The victim was 22-year-old Sam Rimmer, from Bootle, described as a "funny" and "amazing" young man who was known to some friends as "little man Sam". Mr Rimmer was on Lavrock Bank, Dingle, with others when around five gunshots rang out in quick succession, according to locals.
Merseyside Police said it is working on the belief that the shots were fired from a group of four men on two bikes, believed to have been electric bicycles. Emergency services attended and found Mr Rimmer with a gunshot wound to the chest.
He was rushed to hospital, but pronounced dead on arrival. It is not yet clear whether he was the intended target of the killers.
For Merseyside Police, the murder of Mr Rimmer comes at a time when its success rate for solving firearms related crime has "never been higher". Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Kameen, head of investigations at the force, spoke about the force's recent track record with tackling serious and organised crime and why the public can have confidence that Mr Rimmer's senseless killing will be solved.
He said: "We are a force that has a really strong, hard-edged approach to serious and organised crime. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) recognised that, we have been graded as outstanding repeatedly in the way we have tackled and managed serious and organised crime.
"The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) have recognised Merseyside as one of the leading forces in the country in the way we tackle serious and organised crime around firearms, we have other forces coming to visit to see what we do. That is because we are relentless.
"We are very good at what we do, but I am very cautious in my language around that because we have a young man lying dead, and this is not the time to celebrate, this is the time to come together, community and force, to work together to identify those responsible.
"But are we good at investigating serious and organised crime? Are we good at investigating homicides? Yes we are, and we have seen the results of that in ECHO headlines over the last couple of weeks with people convicted at Liverpool Crown Court."
DCS Kameen specifically highlighted the life sentences handed down to Huyton gun thug Rueben Murphy, 26, and his accomplice Ben Doyle, 24, last month. The pair had been convicted over the street execution of 26-year-old dad Patrick Boyle, who was shot twice in the chest in Newway, Huyton, on July 1, 2021 - the last homicide involving a gun before the death of Mr Rimmer.
But DCS Kameen also pointed to the nine years and three month sentence handed to 16-year-old gang boss Harry O'Brien, who despite his remarkably young age ran a ruthless drugs ring in the Dingle area. O'Brien gave orders to grown men many years his senior and his crew were linked to a spate of three shootings and a firebomb attack across South Liverpool in the space of three weeks.
Other recent successes include charges for a man in connection with the shooting of an innocent 15-year-old schoolgirl caught in crossfire at a bus-stop in Toxteth, as well as arrests in connection with injury shootings in Wavertree, West Derby, Wirral and Rainford.
DCS Kameen told the ECHO the force currently has a 15% conviction rate for firearms discharges. Out of context, 15% may not seem particularly high compared with the overall number of shootings, but detection rates "have never been so high". DCS Kameen said: "Tackling firearms discharges is a challenging arena for any force. That outcome rate is significantly higher than it has been previously.
"A lot of that is because of the way we are investigating them now; we have got a dedicated Firearms Investigation Team here in Merseyside, but also because of the community engagement, we find we have got people coming forward and giving us information which helps support those enquiries and that outcome rate."
Merseyside's Chief Constable Serena Kennedy also spoke to the ECHO about the effect the dedicated Firearms Investigation Team (FIT), which began service in January 2020, has had on the rate of shootings in the city.
She said: "We now have the FIT team to make sure we catalogue every single piece of intelligence around firearm discharges, and to take positive action whenever we have the opportunity. In the past we may have had a local team on a non-injury firearms discharge and one of our major crimes units on an injury shooting, even if they had both happened in one area.
"Now all firearms incidents, whether injury or non-injury, are investigated by one team. That enables you to have a much broader view of those firearms investigations. We have done linked-series, which is where we know when we have the same gun being discharged whether it is an injury or non-injury shooting.
"Th FIT team give that broader, overall comparison, all that intelligence is going in to one team."
Chief Constable Kennedy said that police delegations from Sweden and Australia had visited Liverpool recently to learn from the work of the firearms team, and as DCS Kameen referred to, this week the force was rated outstanding in its approach to tackling serious and organised crime following an inspection by HMIC.
The annual inspection, known as a Police Effectiveness, Efficiency, Legitimacy (PEEL) report, gave grades for 13 specific policing priorities. 'Preventing crime', 'investigating crime' and 'protecting vulnerable people' were all rated good, with 'supporting victims' the only area where the force received a rating of 'adequate'.
HMIC inspector Matt Parr, who authored the 2021/22 PEEL report, said: "In particular, the force’s performance in dealing with serious and organised crime is outstanding. It disrupts gangs bringing in drugs from other areas in innovative ways and consults the public on how to use the money it seizes to benefit the community.
"The force is also performing well across most other areas of policing – this includes protecting vulnerable people, preventing and investigating crime, and supporting its own workforce."
Overall, the force was rated 'good'. HMIC did highlight two issues requiring improvement, which it described as Merseyside Police "not always attending priority calls for service in agreed timescales" and "not completing victim needs assessments in all cases, which could lead to victims withdrawing support for prosecutions".
Chief Constable Kennedy said work was underway to address those points.
Anyone with information on the death of Sam Rimmer is asked is asked to DM @MerPolCC or @CrimestoppersUK, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting log 1259 of 16 August. Merseyside Police also has a dedicated portal here where anyone with video footage, such as from CCTV, dash-cam or doorbell cameras, can upload it directly to the force.
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