The United Kingdom’s Central Criminal Court on Monday convicted two 18-year-old teenagers, including Nigerian-born Emmanuel Popoola, of murdering a teenager, Keanu Harker, over a gang-related dispute in Enfield, north London.
The death of the victim arose from a rivalry between two Enfield gangs, the 3×3 gang and the Get Money Gang (GMG), over an argument on Snapchat, in which comments implied that Mr Popoola did not have the money to buy data for his mobile phone.
The prosecutor in the case, Louise Oakley, who explained how the attack occurred, told the jury that the defendants caught up with the victim, who was cycling at the time of the incident, before shooting him.
“Keanu Harker immediately fell off his bicycle onto the road. He was fatally injured but somehow managed to crawl a short distance into the front garden of a residential address just off the Great Cambridge Road. Emmanuel Popoola and Tayvon did not stop. They continued to make good their escape,” the prosecutor said.
Following the incident, the prosecutor stated that Mr Popoola attempted to escape by boarding a one-way Eurostar service from London St Pancras to Paris with the help of his 18-year-old girlfriend, Anais King.
She said detectives tracked Mr Popoola through his girlfriend after she travelled to Paris to join him, unknowingly leading French police to arrest the principal suspect.
Ms Oakley added that the other suspect, Tayvon Etefia, booked his own ticket but was tracked down by police, who boarded the train and arrested him two minutes before its scheduled departure.
The UK jury also convicted three accomplices identified as Mbaki, King, and a 17-year-old boy of perverting the course of justice in the case.
The court, during its sitting, found Messrs Popoola and Etefia guilty of murder and possessing a self-loading pistol with intent to endanger life.
The court disclosed that the suspects will be sentenced on Thursday and Friday, while the other defendants will be sentenced at a later date.
“We have been left with a lifetime of pain and loss that can never be undone. We hope this case opens people’s eyes to how damaging gang culture has become for young people,” one of the victim’s family stated.
“Too many children are losing their lives, and too many families are being left to suffer unimaginable heartbreak. Something must change before more young lives are taken, and more parents are forced to endure the pain that we now live with every day,” the relative stated.
