Two suspects arrested after a man was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by shooting have been released without charge due to "insufficient evidence".
Merseyside Police had been called to the busy Hoole Road in Woodchurch, Wirral, at around 6.30pm on Tuesday, March 22 last year after members of the public raised the alarm. It later emerged that a 23-year-old man had been shot multiple times close to a row of shops, in full view of a young girl said to have been "petrified" by the incident.
The victim survived but was left with "life-changing injuries". Detectives at the time said between three and five shots were fired from a dark-coloured Ford Fiesta, which witnesses described "screeching off" in the direction of Houghton Road.
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A short time later the vehicle was then abandoned and burned out in Wildbrook Drive, Bidston, with a bystander recording footage of the Fiesta in flames.
Significant progress appeared to have been made in the investigation by March 29 last year when the force announced a 28-year-old man from Beechwood had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The man was questioned and then bailed. However no charges were brought and today the force confirmed that two suspects arrested in connection with the incident were released with no further action due to "insufficient evidence" after "extensive enquiries".
The force asked for anyone else with information to come forward.
The shooting was one of several high-profile, serious incidents that blighted the Woodchurch estate and nearby over the course of 2022, including two other injury shootings. On December 3 a man was shot in the legs in Orret's Meadow Road off Hoole Road, and then on December 18 a man was wounded in the arm on Newark Close, Noctorum.
There were also two horrific fatal shootings elsewhere in Wirral in the latter half of last year; the murders of Jackie Rutter, 53, in Moreton and Elle Edwards, 26, in Wallasey Village. Connor Chapman, 22, has been charged with the murder of popular beautician Elle and could face trial in June.
Merseyside Police had been attempting to crackdown on gang violence in Wirral, and senior officers pointed to an escalating gang rivalry between organised crime groups based in the Woodchurch estate and the Beechwood estate as the driver of the shooting incidents.
For Wirral, gun crime was not a regular occurrence until relatively recently. But police believe warring factions in the local underworld have, for unknown reasons, been more willing to open fire on their rivals than ever before.
On December 16, the ECHO spoke to Wirral local community policing inspector Alan McKeon about an ongoing operation targeting organised crime groups.
In a chilling hint of what was to follow, Insp. McKeon told the ECHO: "If you have these factional disputes ongoing, and people using firearms in anger towards each other, we've seen in the last 12 months, with Olivia Pratt-Korbel being the obvious example, and even Rhys Jones prior to that and plenty of others in between, there are just absolutely innocent people who get caught in the crossfire of these people."
Anyone who witnessed the incident on Hoole Road, has CCTV or dashcam footage, or who has any information is asked to contact @MerPolCC on Twitter or ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’ on Facebook or call 101 with reference 22000199706.
You can also call Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111, or their online form here.
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