Nicholas Clarke

Nicholas Clarke was shot in the head in Stockwell on the Myatts Field Estate on 14 March 2008.

He was taken to King’s College Hospital but died the next day.

He had been shot at around 8pm. He had earlier been at a friend’s house in Lambeth which he had left at about 6pm.

Eight people were seen to run off after the shooting.

Eight people were arrested but no charges were made. However, a man was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for being in possession of a gun that was said to have been the gun used to shoot Nicholas Clarke. The man said that he had got the gun weeks after Nicholas Clarke's murder but wouldn't say where he had got it.

The police said that they came up against a wall of silence during their investigation.

They said that they thought that his murder was a gangland killing but his parents said that Nicholas Clarke had no gangland connections.

At his inquest, two witnesses gave conflicting evidence. One said that Nicholas Clarke was fired upon and another said that Nicholas Clarke had seen a man in a balaclava and had started firing on him before he was shot.

A gun was found at the scene along with a balaclava. The police said that the balaclava was heavily covered in gunshot residue and that it had probably been used to wrap the gun up when it was fired. Along with the gun, police found two empty bullet casings, one that had come from the gun that had been found and the other from the gun that had been used to shoot Nicholas Clarke.

A small amount of gunshot residue was found on Nicholas Clarke's clothing but it was thought that that might have come from firearms officers that had treated him.

Another person at the inquest said that Nicholas Clarke was in a gang called the OC.

The Coroner at his inquest returned a narrative conclusion rather than a verdict of unlawful killing as he could not be certain that the man that had shot Nicholas Clarke had not done so in self-defence even though he agreed that the evidence for the shooting being in self-defence was extremely thin.

Nicholas Clarke was born in Jamaica and had been studying to be a vet at South Thames College.