Three men convicted over Wolverhampton playground shooting
Two children were injured in Bushbury in May.
Last updated 14th Dec 2023
Three men have been convicted of attempted murder after two children were injured in a shooting near a playground in Wolverhampton.
On 1 May, shots were fired from a stolen car in Bushbury, injuring an 11-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy.
Kian Durnin, 22, Martinho De-Sousa, 24, and Tireq McIntosh, 23, were convicted today (14 December) at Birmingham Crown Court after a jury deliberated for more than a week.
The court heard the men were aiming at the occupants of another vehicle, when the children were caught in the line of fire.
Jurors were told both victims were struck in the leg by bullets at a park in Shelley Road before a high-speed car chase "straight from the movie director's script".
McIntosh, of Valley Road, De Sousa, of Deansfield Road, and Durnin, of Milton Road, will be sentenced on 20 December.
Det Insp Francis Nock, from our Major Crime Team, said: “At least six shots were fired and it’s by sheer luck that these two children weren’t more seriously injured or killed.
“Thankfully, they have both made recoveries from their physical wounds. But this has left their families shattered.
“We may never know who the intended targets were, or why the shooting happened, but we believe it involved tensions between gangs in the Wolverhampton area, and may be connected to illegal drugs.
“Our recently created Major Crime Team had the resources and expertise to put a huge amount of officers into this investigation, reviewing more than 2,000 hours of CCTV and exploring countless lines of enquiry.
“This was a cowardly attack by men who had no hesitation in firing deadly guns next to a children’s playground.”