Londoners urged to help police end wave of bloodshed

Murder scene: police scour the site where 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth barton was shot dead on Saturday
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A senior Met officer today urged communities to help end the cycle of violence in London after a spate of shootings and stabbings over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were stabbed and a 30-year-old food delivery driver was shot in less than an hour in the latest round of bloodshed yesterday. The attacks came after an innocent 13-year-old boy was hit in the head with a shotgun pellet in Harrow and a 17-year-old was shot dead in Lewisham.

Today, Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Messinger said: “We are using our powers of stop and search and putting more officers on the street to keep London safe.

“But we need to understand that this is a community issue. The police cannot arrest or stop-and-search our way out of this. The community needs to join us and help us tackle the problem.

“If people have concerns or information then please pass it on to us. Have confidence in us. This is about the community caring for one another. We are here to help and support them.”

Police in Wealdstone, in north west London, following two shootings on Sunday
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Mr Messinger, the commander of Southwark and Lambeth police, said extra patrols were being deployed across London with support from armed officers, dog units and traffic motorcycles, along with plain clothes intelligence-led operations. A 16-year-old was stabbed just before 4pm yesterday in Broomfield Park, Enfield, in front of families at a funfair. Half an hour later, police were called to Leytonstone Road in Stratford where a 17-year-old was stabbed. Both boys are said to be stable following surgery. No arrests have been made.

Then just before 5pm, a delivery driver, who was on foot, was shot in New Cross by a gunman riding pillion on a moped. His condition was also stable.

The incidents came after a 13-year-old was shot in the back of the head on Sunday as he walked to a wedding with his parents along Wealdstone High Street, Harrow.

The teenager, an “entirely innocent member of the public”, collapsed in the doorway of Specsavers after being hit by stray shotgun pellets. He was said to have been hit accidentally by a moped-riding gunman targeting another 15-year-old boy, who was also injured in the attack.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose, head of policing in Harrow, described the incident as a “callous, reckless and brazen act”. Meanwhile, police were still hunting for the gunman who shot dead Rhyhiem Barton, 17, in Kennington on Saturday.

His mother Pretana Morgan, who was photographed scrubbing her son’s blood at the scene, made an emotional appeal for an end to youth violence in London, pleading: “Let my son be the last.”

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