Killed and Killers are our Neighbours

A Deptford man was jailed this week 'after murdering the wrong man in a roadside execution. Michael Ofori was shot shortly after midnight on June 23 last year in Oslac Road, Catford, as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car'. Nicholas Allon-McVytie, aged 23, of Vanguard Street, Deptford was convicted of being the getaway driver for the gunman. The court 'was told of a rivalry between the defendants and their intended target which led to a number of shooting incidents in Sydenham and Brockley' (report in Newsshopper, 21 October).

Meanwhile the trial started this week of four teenagers from Peckham and New Cross accused of the murder of 17 year old Sylvester Akapalara 'a member of Herne Hill Harriers athletics club' who was shot dead on the Pelican Estate in Peckham in December 2010 (BBC News).

In another current trial, a teenage girl from New Cross is accused of going out in her school lunch hour to buy knives used to kill 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden, stabbed to death at Victoria station last year (Telegraph).

I don't feel personally unsafe walking round here most of the time (touch wood), but we shouldn't get into a mindset of an 'acceptable level of violence' as long it doesn't immediately impact on our family and friends. Killed and killers are our neighbours.