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Mohanna Abdhou

Age: 20

Sex: female

Date: 26 May 2017

Place: South Kilburn Estate, Malvern Road, Kilburn, Northwest London

Mohanna Abdhou was shot in Malvern Road, Kilburn, Northwest London near Dickens House, on Friday 26 May 2017 shortly before 9pm whilst out with friends.

She had been hit by a stray bullet that had bounced off a wall and hit her in her back and stomach severing her pelvic artery. Her cause of death was given as being due to a single gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at 9.30pm.

It was not thought that she was the intended target of the shooting and said that the shooting was a tit-for-tat shooting associated with years of violence between two gangs, the Harrow Boys and the Skilly, whose territories were about half-a-mile apart. It was also reported that she had been killed in a cross-fire.

Several people were tried over her murder but acquitted. They were:

  • 19-year-old male: acquitted of murder and manslaughter on 24 May 2018.
  • 21-year-old male: acquitted of murder and manslaughter on 24 May 2018.
  • 17-year-old male: acquitted of murder and manslaughter on 4 May 2018 by the judge mid-way through the trial.
  • 21-year-old female (21-year-old male's girlfriend): acquitted of two counts of assisting an offender on 24 May 2018.

A number of other people had also been arrested during the investigation but later released, including four men aged between 19 and 21 and three women aged between 20 and 25.

The two men tried said that they had been at one of their mother's houses at the time smoking a joint.

The 21-year-old's girlfriend had been charged with assisting an offender after it was claimed that she had booked him a hotel room in Luton to stay in following the shooting, far from London.

Mohanna Abdhou had been standing in Malvern Road by a children’s playground near Dickens House at the time when the two men had approached on bicycles. They were said to have both been wearing dark coloured clothing and to have had their faces covered. Dickens House was a large block of flats on the housing estate.

They were seen in CCTV at 8.53pm on their bicycles in Malvern Place seconds before the shooting from where they turned into Malvern Road and carried out the shooting and then rode off.

When the two men arrived on the scene on bicycles they had been near Dickens House when they fired towards the group of people that Mohanna Abdhou had been with. She had died after a bullet ricocheted off a wall and hit her. She died from a single gunshot wound. A bullet was removed from her back and another was found in a nearby flat.

It was thought that the weapon had been a revolver, but the gun was never found.

The gunmen had fired multiple shots in what was described as a hail of gunfire. The police said, 'At least three, probably more, shots were fired in the direction of her group'. a witness that had lived on the estate for six years said that they had heard four gunshots.

After the shooting the two men had ridden off on their bicycles along Malvern Road in the direction of Shirland Road where they were seen in Shirland Mews at around 8.55pm heading towards Fernhead Road.

The men were described as:

  • Slim to medium build.
  • Wearing dark clothing with face coverings/masks.
  • Riding bicycles.

The police added that their faces had been covered which would have made them stand out as it was a warm evening. Friday 26 May 2017 had been described as a beautifully hot day in London.

The two gangs involved in the tit-for-tat violence were the Harrow Boys, also known as the HRB, whose turf was the Mozart Estate and the Killy gang or SK mob were from the South Kilburn Estate. It was heard at the trial that the two gunmen had been from the Harrow Boys gang and that the shooting had taken place in the middle of the South Kilburn Estate which was Killy territory.

The witness from the estate that had heard the shooting said, 'It’s gang wars between the Mozart estate and South Kilburn. They found a knife during the search for the casings. There were about 20 kids in the park, just having a really good time. It was 8.52pm, I’ll remember that time forever'.

The police said, 'The people who have carried out this horrible callous attack, there is a reasonable chance in my experience that they would have spoken to someone or said something that gives a suspicion to them being involved. I think there are people who do know about it. This is a young woman who had been shot dead, search your conscience, do the right thing and tell the police'.

When the police were questioned about the identity of the gunmen and their face masks they said, 'The question is how long were their faces covered for? Was it five or ten minutes before the attack, or were they captured on CCTV earlier in the day without their faces covered?'.

Mohanna Abdhou was said to have been an innocent victim, with the police saying that they had found nothing in her background to suggest she could have been a target.

Mohanna Abdhou was known as Montana to her friends and was from Hayes but had been living in a hostel in Hillingdon at the time.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.