Lee Erdmann

Lee Erdmann was shot dead in The Wellington pub on Regent Road, Ordsall, on 10 September 2011 by a man that he had been chatting with at the bar.

He had been talking to the man at the bar for about 30 minutes and then at about 2.50am when Lee Erdmann went to the gents the man shot him twice. It was thought that whilst talking to Lee Erdmann the man had been using his mobile phone to text messages to someone asking them to bring him a gun.

He had been shot with a .38 calibre gun and it was thought that the gun had been brought to the pub after Lee Erdmann had arrived. The gun was never found.

The man shot him once in the back, the bullet going through his heart, and Lee Erdmann then fell to the floor. The gunman then shot him again in the chest and stamped repeatedly on his face. After the gunman warned other people in the pub that they would be shot if they spoke to police.

Later a graffiti campaign around the area warned locals about talking about the murder.

It was thought that the gunman had taken exception to Lee Erdmann being in his pub and had been a trigger-happy member of an Ordsall-based crime gang. He was also thought to have been linked to four other shootings. The police said that Lee Erdmann had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time noting that he wasn't from Ordsall but he was drinking in an Ordsall pub and that someone had taken exception to that. They said that they didn't think that it was a planned murder and that there had been no argument. However, it was said that it was thought that Lee Erdmann had known the gunman and that they had met before although there was no known animosity between them, the only point of note being that they were from different parts of Salford. It was later suggested that Lee Erdmann might have been shot for disrespecting a gang member some time before the shooting. It was said that he had earlier been told to go to the pub to apologise but that he had refused.

The Wellington had CCTV coverage that would have caught the murder but the CCTV hard drive that would have covered it was stolen. It was thought that the gunman stole the CCTV hard drive.

The police said that they had identified a main suspect within 24 hours and had arrested the man but were unable to charge him due to lack of evidence. They said that all the information they received about the gunman pointed to the same person. A number of people, including the main suspect were arrested but no charges were made.

There had been about 30 people in the pub at the time but the police said that they had come up against a wall of silence and that there was a no grass culture on the estate that the pub was on.

The police said that it was thought that Lee Erdmann had never been in The Wellington pub before. It was said that he had gone there because he heard that it would be open late and because it was close to the birthday of a daughter of his that had died. The police said that there was no evidence anyone knew that Lee Erdmann was going to the pub and that it had probably been a split-second decision taken after he couldn’t sleep. He had been drinking earlier on in the day in the Hyde Park Corner pub and had heard someone say that there was a late night at The Wellington pub because there was a party.

Lee Erdmann and his brother had had a picture of themselves taken for a book by Bernard O’Mahoney called Faces about the criminal underworld a couple of weeks before the shooting. The picture was used to market the book at an exhibition although it was not included in the book itself.

In 2015 Lee Erdmann's brother was reported to have died mysteriously in his sleep.

Lee Erdmann was from Broughton, Salford and had five children.

The Wellington Pub has since been demolished.