A teenage girl fatally wounded in a gang shooting asked her friend to call her mother, a court has heard.
Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, 17, may not have been the intended target when she was injured in a drive-by shooting in the Northumberland Park area of Tottenham, north London, on 2 April 2018, the Old Bailey was told.
In a statement read to the court, Jace Stockley said Tanesha had shouted, “I’ve been shot,” after gunfire rang out towards their group. Tanesha then fell into Ms Stockley’s arms and said, “Call my mum, call my mum.” According to the statement, Tanesha was breathing heavily and went very pale.
Prosecutor Philip McGhee read Ms Stockley’s account, in which she described being about four paces behind Tanesha on Chalgrove Road. She said: “I heard a car coming down the road, but I didn’t see it. I then heard Tanesha shout: ‘Jace, duck!’, and I heard gunshots.”
Ms Stockley added: “From the first shot to the last, it must have only been a couple of seconds. Everyone liked Tanesha – no one would hurt her. She has not done anything that would cause anyone to shoot her.”
Michael Clarke, 36, denies Tanesha’s murder, as well as possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. He lived in Wood Green and had been nearby on the evening of the shooting, the court has heard.
The jury was also told that there had been “longstanding enmity” and territorial rivalry between criminal gangs, with the shooting linked to an incident in which a friend of Mr Clarke had been beaten.
