Age: 24
Sex: male
Date: 14 May 2016
Place: Melbourne Road, Leyton, London
Adbi Gutale was shot at the junction of Melbourne Road and Capworth Street in Leyton in the early hours of Saturday 14 May 2016.
He was shot in the chest in his Vauxhall Zafira car at 3.15am as he drove down the street after a night working. His sister said that Adbi Gutale got a call and went off for a pick-up and that that was the last she saw of him. It was also said that he had just finished his shift and had been going home at the time, and also that when he was shot he had had some friends in his cab although his employer said that at the time he was shot he didn't have any customers.
He was ambushed and after being shot he tried to reverse his car away from danger but crashed into some parked cars. Neighbours performed first aid on him and when paramedics arrived they carried out surgery, but he died at the scene.
At the time he had been working part time as a minicab driver for Advance Cars in Walthamstow, having started a week earlier, whilst attending South Bank University where he was studying for a degree in civil engineering.
Five men were arrested in relation to his murder at the time but they were all released and no charges were made. They were:
The 25-year-old from Leytonstone had been due to appear at the Old Bailey on 7 June 2016.
The police said that they were still trying to trace a woman who was said to have had black hair who was seen to climb a fence at the church on Capworth Street and to then walk away.
Although he had been ambushed, his family said that he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The gunman or gunmen fired at least four shots at him. He had lived in Walthamstow and was less than half a mile away from his home at the time.
The police said that they thought that his murder might have been gang related but said that there was no clear motive for his murder. However, his sister said that Adbi Gutale had never been involved with gangs.
