Blake Brown

Blake Brown was shot in the head, thigh and buttock in Aigburth on 24 October 2016.

He was shot near a bail hostel at which he was staying in Southwood Road near St Michael's train station. He had just been dropped off in Southwood Road when he was approached by two men and shot at close range. It was said that one of the men had pressed the barrel of the gun to his temple and to have then said, 'You die', and to have then shot him.

Neighbours said that they heard five shots fired at about 10.20pm. He was taken to hospital but was confirmed dead at 11pm.

It was said that he had been shot by a gang of two or three men who had then fled the scene after the shooting on foot.

Two men from Croxteth were arrested on suspicion of his murder two days later on 26 October 2019, but later released.

A man was charged with conspiracy to murder Blake Brown on 19 July 2018 and tried, but acquitted on 4 February 2019. After the man was acquitted, he yelled out, 'Yes!' in court and then shouted 'Rats!' at the police officers who were at the trial.

It was noted that 18 people had been arrested in connection with Blake Brown's murder and that the man that was tried was not connected with any of the other people arrested.

The man that was tried admitted that he was a 'dodgy car dealer' and a car criminal but denied being involved in the murder of Blake Brown. He admitted that he received the Range Rover Evoque which was stolen in West Kirkby and that was used in the murder and fitting it with a false number plate and also to having later gone and burnt the car out after the shooting in Heswall. However, he said that he didn't know that it was going to be used for a murder. He said, 'I was contacted by a regular who asked me for some plates. He told me it was going to be for a Range Rover Evoque'. He said that he was always changing vehicles and making fake number plates. He said, 'I've got free reign in that garage. I do what I want. I don't make any record of it. I've done it thousands of times before.', referring to making fake number plates, and added, 'An associate would phone me, trusting that I wouldn't snitch'. During questioning, he said, 'People being shot dead is not my world'.

The man was repeatedly asked to say who he had supplied the car and made the number plates for but refused to do so. However, he revealed that he had been paid £250 to clone the Range Rover Evoque which was used in the murder. At his trial he admitted that he earned up to £600 a week selling fake number plates, saying, 'Plates, yeah, I make a good living selling plates'. At the time he had been working at Ron Hodgson's Specialist Cars garage in Upholland, Lancashire.

The court heard that the murderers had driven the stolen Range Rover Evoque to Moel Famau View, off Riverside Drive and had then travelled by foot through a small wooded area to Southwood Road where they had waited for Blake Brown to return before shooting him.

The man denied ever meeting or speaking to Blake Brown, saying, 'I have never met or spoken to this man in my entire life, and that goes for his entire family'.

It was noted that Blake Brown had served a four-and-a-half year prison sentence for assaulting a taxi driver after he bit a chunk of flesh from his scalp off. The assault had left the taxi-driver needing a skin draft. Blake Brown had attacked the taxi-driver after he had taken cocaine and then fallen asleep in the back of his taxi-cab after being picked up in Knowsley. When the taxi-cab driver, whilst still driving his cab, woke Blake Brown up, Blake Brown punched him in the head and there was then a struggle. During the struggle the taxi-cab driver tried to find a police station, but as he was doing so, Blake Brown then bit a chunk of scalp off from his head and spat it on the floor.

At the time of the assault he had only recently been released from prison for dangerous driving and had been living in the Southwood bail hostel in Southwood Road. It was heard that he was required to live at the hostel, but that on most days he would be taken by his brother to his mother's house where he would spend the day before being taken back at night to meet the requirements of his curfew regulations.

He also had previous convictions for making home-made explosives. possessing drugs, being drunk and disorderly and possessing a bladed article.

Blake Brown had been tried in 2006 along with another man for the murder of Paul Mooney who was shot in November 2004 but acquitted. Paul Mooney's murder is also unsolved.

However, it was also heard that he had also been a victim of gang crime after members of the Croxteth were said to have run him over once resulting in him being taken to hospital and placed on life support.

Blake Brown was originally from Croxteth and the police said that they thought that his murder might have been connected to disputes from that area.

His family said that he was caring, helpful and charismatic and that he loved all forms of life, animals and nature.