More than 150 shootings around major UK city in a year – with 19 in a month… and it’s NOT London
THERE have been more than 150 shootings around a major city in a year with 19 in just one month - and it's not London.
Birmingham and the surrounding West Midlands county have suffered a spate of shootings, with a girl, 11, and boy, 15, injured in a daylight shooting in Wolverhampton on Bank Holiday Monday.
The boy suffered a bullet wound to his leg in the residential area of Bushbury, while the girl was found with similar injuries in a nearby park.
Kian Durnin, 22, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder.
Around a third of the 150 shootings recorded across the West Midlands since the start of last year resulted in death or injury.
Victims include Muhammad Sohail, 25, who was shot dead and found in a car in the inner-city Saltley area.
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Sohail was shot at point-blank range in the execution-style killing outside his home last February, with devastated friends offering a £20,000 reward for information.
Mohammed Kasim, 30, was also shot in a car in Small Heath, two miles south-east of Birmingham city centre last July.
The dad died after he was taken to hospital, with another victim surviving injuries which they suffered in the same shooting.
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The wave of shootings and stabbings has left residents begging for cops and politicians to keep them safe.
reports that in just one month, July 2022, there were 19 shootings across the West Midlands.
Firearms incidents also hit double figures in seven other months between January 2022 and May 2023.
Four people were killed in just over a month between February and March last year, the deadliest period of the crime wave.
West Midlands Police has rolled out tough stop-and-search powers in a bid to tackle gangs - but local police commissioner Simon Foster said cuts had "undoubtedly contributed to the rise in violent crime".
It comes after a man, 73, was punched and kicked after he left a mosque in Birmingham.