A 19 year old is jailed over a street shooting in Leeds
It happened on a Sunday afternoon in Meanwood last summer
A man convicted over a shooting in a busy Leeds street on a Sunday afternoon last summer has been given an extended sentence of more than 18 years.
Police were alerted to the incident in Stainbeck Road, Meanwood, by the ambulance service at about 2.45pm on Sunday, August 11, last year.
The victim, a 27-year-old man, had been shot in the chest and was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.
The bullet was found to have gone through the right side of his chest and exited his right arm without causing any life threatening or life changing injuries.
The incident was treated as attempted murder and detectives from West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team launched an investigation.
It was established that, prior to the shooting, there had been a disturbance in the street between two groups of males across the road from the Morrisons Daily store in Stainbeck Road, near to the junction with Stainbeck Avenue.
A male had then arrived on an e-bike which he dropped to the ground before producing a handgun and firing it, hitting the victim.
The gunman then went after the victim’s group as they ran from the scene.
Detectives carried out extensive enquiries in the area, which included a comprehensive trawl of CCTV cameras to trace the victim’s movements on the day.
From this, they identified Mohammed Shakeel Malik as a suspect.
Footage showed him riding around the area in the time leading up to the shooting and being involved in an altercation with the group containing the victim in Stainbeck Avenue shortly after 2pm. He would later state he had been robbed of his mobile phone at this point.
The shooting itself had not been captured on CCTV, but the sound of the gunshot was picked up by a nearby camera.
Malik had fled the country the following day - before he had been identified as a suspect – flying to Bangkok from Heathrow Airport on a ticket bought just hours before the flight.
He arrived back in the UK on September 12 and was arrested on his arrival at Manchester Airport.
He was charged with attempted murder and made an initial appearance at Leeds Magistrates Court on September 14 and was remanded in custody.
On the morning of his trial, he offered a guilty plea to Section 18 wounding with intent, which was accepted by the prosecution.
Today, Malik, aged 19, of Stonegate Edge, Meanwood, was sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison with an extended license period of five years.
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector James Entwistle said:
“This was a truly shocking incident where Malik, who was just eighteen years old at the time, has been able to access a firearm and resort to such an extreme level of violence without any consideration of the harm that could have been caused to the victim or those passing by on what was a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was only by sheer chance that the victim wasn’t fatally injured."