The mother of a teenager murdered in a drive-by shooting urged against any revenge attacks for her son’s death yesterday after an escalation of gang-related violence in Birmingham.Maxine Sharp, whose son Stephon Davidson, 19, died after being shot during a rush-hour car-chase on Monument Road in the city centre, attended a police press conference to appeal for calm.
Ms Sharp, 41, said: “His family wish to make clear that we do not wish to see any form of revenge. One life lost is too many. What we would like to see is those involved in his death brought to justice.”
Stephon’s death is the fourth in a series of gang-related shootings and stabbings in the Birmingham area in the past month in what police are calling “tit for tat” killings.
Detective Chief Inspector Tim Bacon echoed Ms Sharp’s plea for calm, and added: “In any incident of this type, wherever firearms are used, there is always a possibility that people might seek to take the law into their own hands.”
Stephon died in hospital on Tuesday almost a month after the shooting. The investigation is focusing on a silver Toyota Avensis car from which the fatal shots were fired in rush-hour traffic on August 5.
Mr Bacon stressed that the car, which has been recently used in the Birmingham, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire areas, may now be in the possession of “innocent parties”, adding: “We must find this car and find it quickly.”
A major policing operation has been launched in the city to increase police numbers and close clubs earlier in response to increasing levels of gang-related violent crime in the city.
Matthew Sutherland, 29, died after being stabbed outside a Birmingham nightclub on August 17. Marlon Morris, 21, was fatally stabbed in Wolverhampton on August 23, the same night that Dmitri Foskin, 24, was gunned down in the Newton area of Birmingham.
Police believe these incidents are the latest in a lengthening history of gang-related violence in the area.
Two gangs in particular, the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys, have for many years been fighting a turf war on Birmingham’s streets, which cost the lives of Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis, who were shot dead in a botched gang attack at a New Year’s party in 2003.
Mr Bacon said that Stephon had a number of “friends and associates” who belonged to local gangs, but would not speculate on whether he was himself a gang member.
His death on Tuesday coincided with the launch of a trust fund for bereaved victims of violent crime, set up by the families of Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis.
At its launch, the local council announced that Birmingham businesses would be urged to offer apprenticeships to gang members in an effort to give the city’s youngsters an “exit route” from crime.
The scheme will initially provide apprenticeships to six young people who have become embroiled in gang and gun culture and will be extended further if it proves successful.
Councillor Alan Rudge of Birmingham City Council asked employers to overcome their “prejudices” and help to steer youngsters away from the “evil people” who control gang-related crime in the city.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith praised the scheme as a “good example” of an alternative way to discourage crime.
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