Tributes have been paid to a 28-year-old woman who was shot dead in her home in Liverpool in the early hours of Sunday, seven years after her brother was also fatally shot.
Ashley Dale was shot in the back garden of her home in what is believed by police to have been a mistaken identity attack. Her younger brother, Lewis Dunne, was killed in 2015 at age 16 after a gang mistook him for a rival gang member. Their deaths are not believed to be connected.
Dale was a graduate who had recently secured a promotion with the environmental health team at Knowsley Council.
Det Ch Supt Mark Kameen of Merseyside police said the front door to her home on Leinster Road had been forced open. Several shots were fired before Dale was found with gunshot wounds at 12.40am.
Describing the attack as “callous and thoughtless”, Kameen said it had been carried out on “an innocent member of the public” and urged people to “come together” to help find those responsible.
Kameen said he wanted the community to “have a sense of utter disgust, revulsion and shock” as he appealed for witnesses after confirming no arrests have yet been made. “If you live or work locally and have private CCTV or a Ring doorbell please check it to see if it captured anything which may assist us,” he said.
“Similarly, I would ask taxi and delivery drivers if they were driving in the area to check their dashcam footage. We are particularly keen to find anyone who saw a vehicle being driven erratically in the area around Prescot Road.”
In a statement released through Merseyside police, Dale’s family said: “Ashley, our girl – our shining light. Our hearts are broken into a million pieces. Ashley was a hard-working young woman who had her entire life ahead of her. She had just been promoted at her job with Knowsley council. She had a degree and so many plans for her bright future that had only just begun.
“Her laugh, smile and energy was infectious in any room. We can’t come to terms with how this would happen to a defenceless woman in her own home. None of this makes sense and our lives will never be the same again. A senseless crime that has torn a family apart. Justice needs to be brought.”
Graham Morgan, the Knowsley metropolitan borough council leader, said everyone at the town hall was “extremely saddened” by Dale’s death, adding: “Ashley will be a big loss to her team and the wider council as well as those Knowsley residents who she supported.
“She was extremely popular with everyone who she came into contact with. Our thoughts and condolences are with Ashley’s family, friends and colleagues at this extremely sad time. We are offering support to colleagues who are understandably shocked and upset at this news.”
