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James Kamara

Age: 22

Sex: male

Date: 8 Jun 2009

Place: Brunswick Street, Broomhall, Sheffield

James Kamara was shot as he was sat in a car on Brunswick Street with three other men.

Four people were tried for his murder but acquitted.

A silver Vauxhall Vectra car, with registration FJ52 GWP, was seen to drive past and a masked man was seen to lean out of the rear window and fire the shots. James Kamara, who had been sitting in the passenger seat of a VW Golf car was shot in the chest and cried out, 'I've been hit', as he tried to climb out over a friend through the driver's door window. As he did so he was hit again in the arm by another shot. He was hit by seven bullets in total. Police said that eleven bullets were fired in the attack.

Two other people in the car were shot as well but survived.

After the shooting the car was said to have travelled through the Broomhall estate along Collegiate Crescent, Park Lane and Clarkehouse Road and was later found abandoned and partially burnt out behind the Belle Vue pub, off Whitehouse Lane in Walkley at about 8.25pm later that evening.

The prosecution said that James Kamara was in the Squaremen gang from Broomhall and that the gunman had been in the rival gang, the S3 gang, from Burngreave and Pitsmoor. They said that the shooting was the result of a feud between the two gangs but that James Kamara might not have been the intended target.

A witness said that she heard a continuous line of shots, like a machine gun. Another witness said, 'I heard a gun going off about eight times. When we looked outside we could see people trying to resuscitate a man lying in the street. It was horrible. I saw another man with blood all over his body. The whole street was taped off the next day so I didn't leave the house at all, I was too scared'.

The police said that they were interested in speaking to anyone that saw an earlier disturbance in Eldon Street, Devonshire Green, behind the Forum bar that happened about an hour and a half before at 5pm which they believe was related to the shooting. It was said that in the incident the S3 gang had clashed with a rival gang from the S10 area of Broomhall (Squaremen gang). In court, the prosecution said that abuse was exchanged between the two gang members and that members of the S3 gang had armed themselves with ashtrays, bottles and glasses which they had thrown at the other gang members before backing down and leaving. The prosecution said that the S3 gang had lost face and then went off and planned the drive by shooting in which James Kamara was killed. They said that a hard man from the S10 gang (Squaremen gang) who had been drinking with James Kamara at the club was the intended target of the attack.

The prosecution said that the S3 gang members then went out in the silver Vauxhall Vectra car cruising slowly around through Broomhall looking for their quarry and that when they reached Brunswick Street they saw the hard man that had been involved in the earlier confrontation stood outside a house by the car and opened fire at him but mainly hit the car that James Kamara was sat in.

Police said that they thought the gun used had been a 9mm semi-automatic firearm but said that it had not yet been found.

After the trial the police said 'It's not likely we are going to have a re-investigation in the sense of trying to identify anybody else who might be responsible. This was a meticulous investigation, and what evidence and facts we had were laid before the court.'.


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