A teenager who shot a mother in the head while she stood in the doorway of her home trying to shield her two children has been jailed for life.
Lianne Gordon, 42, had just returned from a holiday in Jamaica when she became the unintended victim of a gang feud on 5 December last year.
At the time of the fatal shooting, Joshua Alexander, 17, was on bail for an attempted murder relating to a separate incident in March 2023.
Her murder was the culmination of a series of violent incidents between two rival neighbourhood gangs. That evening, Gordon’s son Kaymound, 21, was in the shower and her 16-year-old daughter came out of her room in their Hackney home when she heard what she thought were fireworks.
Even though the gunman was wearing a balaclava, she was later to tell police that she recognised her mother’s killer.
She said: “Mum had her hand on door handle and looked like she was trying to close it. I could see gun tip through the open door. I saw her drop. I went to her.
“As soon as my mum took her last breath and I was still hearing gunshots and that, I opened the front door and I was screaming at him and he stared me directly in my face.
“He was wearing a balaclava or hood, but I could see enough of his eyes and nose area to recognise him. He did not say anything. Everything happened in slow motion. We were face on for a few seconds, maybe five, before he ran off. We locked eyes, knew it was him.”
Alexander had denied being the gunman but was found guilty in October of Gordon’s murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.
A jury also found him guilty of attempting to kill a 17-year-old boy and 21-year-old man who were shot in the street during the same incident.
On Monday, a judge lifted a reporting restriction on naming Alexander, who turns 18 in February.
Gordon’s twin sister, Louise, described her as “a force of nature” and said “everything has been destroyed, shattered and broken” since her death.
In a victim impact statement, she told the court: “I feel like I have lost my other half. She had nothing but love for me, as she did for everyone who was lucky enough to be in her circle.”
Gordon’s sister added: “I feel like I’m underwater most days trying to stay afloat. My mind is still in constant turmoil.”
She said her twin was “shot like a gangster” in her own home, adding: “This gun crime has ripped a hole in my family and there is nothing we can do about it.”
Prosecutor Mark Fenhalls KC said the incidents resulted from a dispute between two Hackney gangs: the Pembury Gang, with which Alexander was associated; and the A-Road Gang, with whom Mr Gordon was linked.
It was alleged the defendants had threatened Gordon’s son with a large knife as he smoked a cigarette on his doorstep on 1 October last year, although they denied it.
Days before her murder, Alexander was involved in a ride-out in rival territory involving a machete and a gun which was fired four times, jurors were told.
Mr Gordon, who uses a wheelchair, had denied membership of the A-Road Gang but said problems began in 2019 when his friend, Dotz, was murdered.
Over the years, each side would disrespect each other in songs and on social media and there were revenge attacks, jurors were told. Despite the teenage defendant’s family trying to distance him from the gang by moving miles away, he travelled back to Hackney to take part in the shooting.
Following the fatal shooting, Alexander had made 65 internet searches on his computer for Lianne Gordon and “fatal shooting in Hackney”.
Mr Fenhalls told jurors: “The only sensible conclusion to draw from this activity on this computer is that [the youth] had made it home in the early evening and was searching to see what was being reported about what he had done.”
In January, rap lyrics were recovered from his cell referring to the shooting saying that Mr Gordon’s mother was “wigged”, the court heard.
The youth had a series of previous convictions dating back to when he was 15 years old.
He has now been jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 29 years. Addressing Alexander in the dock, Judge David Aubrey KC told him: “You murdered an innocent woman who was behind her front door in her own home.
“Her home should have been a sanctuary, a place of safety. It was, however, where she met her death at your hands while you were in possession of a firearm.”
He told Alexander: “You have shown no remorse whatsoever. Notwithstanding that you have murdered an innocent person in her own home who was not the intended target.”
The youth was also convicted of affray, having a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a bladed article but was acquitted of threatening Mr Gordon with a knife.
Co-defendant Elijah Seriki, 21, from Hackney, was acquitted of all the charges against him on Wednesday.
