A MAN has been found guilty of attempted murder after shooting at mourners at a wake for a teenage knife crime victim.
The shooting, which happened outside of St Mary’s Church Hall on Hamstead Road, Lozells, injured four people, with three teenagers being shot and a 14-year-old girl trampled in the commotion.
Mourners had gathered to remember the life of 17-year-old Akeem Bailey, who was stabbed to death in October 2022.
Meshaq Berryman was found to have opened fire at the mourners from the rear passenger seat of a stolen Nissan Qashqai on February 24, 2023.
West Midlands Police (WMP) has now released CCTV footage of the incident, which shows mourners running for their lives.
Berryman was convicted of three counts of attempted murder after a three-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court earlier this year.
He had earlier admitted possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and cannabis after over 40 wraps of drugs and a set of digital scales were found when police searched his home.
He is due to be sentenced on December 6.
Another man was cleared of three attempted murder charges on October 29 following a trial that started earlier this month.
Det Insp Francis Nock, from WMP Major Crime Team, said: “This was a targeted shooting at a gathering of people who had come to pay their respects to a young man who had himself lost his life to violent crime.
“While the young man who died did not have connections to gangs, Berryman believed there would be people linked to gangs at his wake.
“This could easily have been a triple murder investigation and it’s by luck really that people weren’t killed on that evening.
“We put a huge number of officers into the investigation, to ensure we had a really clear picture of what had happened.
“CCTV, mobile phone and forensic evidence placed Berryman in the car at the time that the shots were fired and he is now facing many years behind bars."
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