Birmingham Gang Members Jailed For Shooting That Left Boy, 13, Paralysed
Three Birmingham gang members have been jailed for life after shooting a 13-year-old boy using a homemade gun, leaving him paralysed, after he apparently "strayed onto their turf".
20-year-olds Diago Anderson, Zidann Edwards, and 17-year-old Tafique Thomas brutally gunned down the schoolboy with a homemade gun after he "strayed onto their turf" in Birmingham.
The victim was walking with his friends when he was attacked by the group in an underpass at Hockley Circus on November 18 last year.
One of the pellets fired from the homemade gun passed through the spinal cord of the victim, leaving him paraplegic.
All three of the accused were convicted of attempted murder at Birmingham Crown Court in August. This Friday all of them were handed life sentences.
The prosecution told Birmingham Crown Court how the victim had been shot because he simply crossed into the territory of a Birmingham gang, known as Armed Response.
Zidann Edwards went on to make a rap video after the attack, expressing his regret that he had not managed to kill the 13-year-old.
The victim managed to call the emergency services after the attack to request help.
Birmingham Police Armed Response Unit issued first aid to the victim before paramedics arrived at the scene.
CCTV captured the suspects pulling up in a stolen Nissan before chasing the victim and his friends into the underpass and shooting the boy in the back with a homemade gun, known as a slam gun.
The stolen car was later recovered by police and forensically linked to the three suspects.
Officers found a handgun as well as a slam gun at an address linked to Thomas and after examination it was proved to be the weapon that shot the 13-year-old.
Anderson was jailed for a minimum of 18 years, Edwards for a minimum of 17 years, and Thomas for a minimum of 16 years and eight months.
After sentencing, the victim's mother said: "These cowards didn't even ask my son a simple question, they just ran him down and shot my 13-year-old in his back, like he was nothing.
"But my son is strong, strong like a lion, and no weapon formed against him will ever prosper."
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