The four men jailed for a drive-by shooting outside a church in Euston, London (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
Four men have been jailed following a drive-by shooting outside a church which left a young girl with a pellet embedded close to her heart.
Two girls, aged 11 and seven and four women were hit when the men used a sawn-off shotgun to fire indiscriminately into a crowd attending a memorial service in Euston, London in January 2023.
Tyrell Lacroix, 23; Jashy Perch, 20; Jordan Walters, 24 and Alrico Nelson-Martin, 20; were sentenced for conspiracy to wound with intent to cause serious harm, at Kingston Crown Court on Friday.
The men were part of a gang taking revenge after Lacroix was stabbed by a rival gang member the year before, the court heard.
They believed members of the rival gang were at the memorial service.
One of the girls sustained gunshot wounds to her arms, legs, and pelvic region, as well as one pellet lodging in a muscle next to her heart.
In a victim impact statement, the girl’s mother said her daughter had asked, ‘Mummy, why has this happened to me?’
Police at the scene of the shooting outside St Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Euston, London in January 2023 (Picture: PA)
The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: ‘She felt like she had done something wrong and could not understand why.’
She added that the incident had ‘taken away’ her daughter’s innocence.
One of the women was also left with serious injuries that have affected her hearing and balance.
In a victim impact statement, she said: ‘I am half the woman I was before.’
The memorial service, held at St Aloysius Catholic Church in Phoenix Road, was a requiem Mass for Sara Sanchez, 20, and her mother, Fresia Calderon, 50, who died in November 2022.
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Ms Sanchez had suffered from leukaemia for three years. She passed away after her mother died suddenly from a rare blood clot on arrival at Heathrow from Colombia.
Tyrell Lacroix, 23, was jailed for 21 years (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
According to a statement from the CPS, on the day of the attack, a black Toyota CHR drove past the large congregation and a man sitting in the rear passenger seat of the vehicle fired from a shotgun into the crowd.
The Toyota quickly sped off, leaving five people injured and several fleeing in terror.
A police investigation found the four men had together carefully planned to injure members of the public outside the church that day.
They identified a car to use, obtained stolen registration plates, surveyed the area, sourced a firearm and ammunition and then cleaned up the car afterwards.
Jordan Walters, 24, was jailed for 13 years (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
Lacroix was jailed for 21 years with a further five years on licence. Perch, who was also convicted of having an offensive weapon and possession of cannabis was jailed for 16 years with a further four years on licence and Walters was jailed for 13 years.
Nelson-Martin, who was also convicted of possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger life, was jailed for 14 years.
Sentencing Lacroix, Judge Mark Bryant-Heron QC said: ‘You, Tyrell Lacroix, had been stabbed in an attack by a rival gang member almost exactly a year before the shooting.
‘And you, Tyrell Lacroix, were set on revenge. Your co-conspirators played their part in helping you to get your revenge.
Alrico Nelson-Martin, 20, was jailed for 14 years (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
‘It is the misfortune of those that organised the memorial service that the deceased people who were being commemorated were from the Regent’s Park estate, an area regarded by you as territory under the control of the Cumbo gang.’
Andrew Hudson, Acting Unit Head of the CPS London Complex Casework Unit, said: ‘Innocent members of the public, including children, were seriously injured and traumatised as a result of this revenge attack related to gangs in the local area.
‘Painstaking analysis of CCTV and mobile phone evidence meant that we could piece together the defendants’ movements before and after the shooting, including how they each played their own part in the conspiracy.
Jashy Perch, 20, was jailed for 16 years (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
‘On a day when the community came together to celebrate and remember the lives of loved ones, their time to grieve was shattered by this shocking and senseless act of violence, which has undoubtedly had a devastating effect on the victims in this case, and indeed, the wider community.
‘Our thoughts continue to be with the victims and members of the community who were injured and traumatised by this violent attack.
‘I hope that today’s sentence will provide a sense of justice to everyone involved.’
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