Iraj Seifi

Iraj Seifi was shot in what was alleged to have been a drugs robbery at a property in Bravington Road, Queen's Park on the afternoon of 29 January 2020.

He had been a Tesco delivery driver and a drug dealer from Maida Vale.

He died a week after being shot on 7 February 2020.

After being shot paramedics were called out and he was taken to hospital where he remained in a critical condition until his death.

Two men were tried for his manslaughter but acquitted. They had both denied killing him.

They were:

1. 53-year-old man with gun.
2. 25-year-old accomplice.

During the police investigation into his murder the police found eight packs of class A drugs hidden by a spare wheel in his car. He was said to have been selling Class A drugs valued at around £10,000, which was described as 'no small beer' and that he would have been likely to have owned a gun. The defence later said:

At the trial the two men were alleged to have been trying to steal the drugs that were later found in his car.

However, they said that they had only gone to buy drugs and thought it would be over quickly but that there was an argument and the 53-year-old man grabbed Iraj Seifi's gun and then later hit him on the head with it and accidently shot him in the head.

At the trial it was heard that the 53-year-old had not known the 25-year-old very well and that he was the friend of his step-son. He said that the 25-year-old had come to him on the morning of 29 January 2020 saying that he 'wanted to buy something' from Iraj Seifi and that he had agreed to go along with him. He admitted that he knew that the 25-year-old was going to buy 'food' from Iraj Seifi, 'food' being a term used to refer to drugs, but thought that it would be just a case of 'going in and out'.

However, he said that when they saw Iraj Seifi that there was then an argument and the 25-year-old grabbed the bag of drugs and that at the same time he saw a gun, which he said Iraj Seifi was trying to reach, but that he reached it first. He said that they then ran out of the house, but Iraj Seifi chased them and tackled the 25-year-old to the ground and that he then hit him on the head with the gun.

The man that shot him said that he didn't know that the gun had been loaded as it didn't belong to him, and said that it went off when he tried to hit him over the head with it. He said that he had only been trying to distract him and that it had gone off accidentally and that he hadn't had his finger on the trigger.

He said that when Iraj Seifi had jumped on top of his friend that he had only been trying to hit Iraj Seifi with the gun to break up the fight.

He said:

He added that he only realised that Iraj Seifi was injured when his friend caught up with him after they ran off and he said to him, 'I think the brother got shot'. It was noted that his friend had been quite upset and had been crying. The gunman said:

When he was asked whether he shot Iraj Seifi, the gunman said:

He denied any knowledge that a drug deal had been going on and said that he had been unable to speak afterwards, saying:

Neither the gun nor the bullet casing were ever found, although a bullet was extracted from Iraj Seifi's head.

They were tried at the Old Bailey in September 2020 but both acquitted of murder, manslaughter and possession of a firearm.