Men jailed for drive-by church shooting

Four men have been jailed for between 13 and 26 years for a drive-by shooting outside a church in which two children and four women were injured.

The men tried to target a rival gang they believed would be there, Kingston Crown Court heard.

A shotgun was fired into a crowd at a memorial service at St Aloysius Church in Euston in January 2023.

Tyrell Lacroix-Omar, Jashy Perch, Jordan Walters and Alrico Nelson-Martin were convicted in February.

They were all found guilty of conspiracy to wound with intent to cause GBH.

Lacroix-Omar, 23, from Swiss Cottage, was given 26 years; Perch, 20, from Watford, who was also convicted of possessing a knife and cannabis, was sentenced to 20 years.

Walters, 24, and Nelson-Martin, 20, both from Brent, were sentenced to 13 and 14 years respectively.

The court heard how Lacroix-Omar had been stabbed by a rival gang member almost exactly a year before the 14 January shooting.

During the revenge attack, a black Toyota was driven past the large congregation and a man sitting in the back seat of the vehicle fired indiscriminately into the crowd with a sawn-off shotgun.

Those gathered had been attending a Requiem Mass being held in memory of Fresia Calderon and her daughter Sara Sanchez. Ms Sanchez died from leukaemia only weeks after her mother collapsed with a blood clot.

Two of the six shooting victims were left with injuries that would "impact them the rest of their lives", the Met Police said.

A seven-year-old girl was hit in her arms, legs and pelvis and still has a fragment lodged close to her heart, while a woman sustained injuries that severely affect her hearing and balance.

The mother of the injured girl said, through a statement read by Judge Mark Bryant-Heron KC, that her daughter could no longer sleep on her own, and asked: "Mummy, why has this happened to me?"

Sentencing the four men, the judge said: "You were all prepared to play your part to shoot and maim innocent members of the public."

Judge Bryant-Heron told the court the attack had been "timed to cause maximum impact and maximum injury" and resulted in "mayhem and panic".

He told Lacroix-Omar that he had been "set on revenge", adding: "Your co-conspirators played their part in helping you to get your revenge."

A spokesperson from CPS said: "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."

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