Four men guilty of drive-by shooting outside Euston church

Four women and two girls were hurt after a sawn-off shotgun was fired into a crowd of people after a memorial service in Phoenix Road, Euston, in January last year.

One of the girls received a metal pellet embedded in a muscle close to her heart, which will have an impact for the rest of her life, while a woman suffered serious injuries that impacted her hearing and balance.

At Kington Crown Court today (February 15), Jashy Perch, 20, of Churchfields Road, Watford; Tyrell Lacroix, 23, of Dorman Way, St John's Wood; and Jordan Walter, 24, of Hilltop Avenue, in Stonebridge Park, Brent, were found guilty of conspiracy to wound with intent to cause serious harm.

Alrico Nelson-Martin, 20, of Griffin Close in Willesden Green, was convicted of the same charge, as well as possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life.

They will return for sentencing at the same court on April 12.

Enquiries continue to identify a fourth man who was in the car at the time of the shooting.

A police forensics officer near the scene of the drive-by shooting in Phoenix Road (Image: PA)

At around 1.30pm on January 24 last year, the Met received 999 calls reporting a shooting outside a church in Phoenix Road.

Officers and paramedics responded and found four women and two girls injured when a shot was fired from a car into a crowd of people who had turned to view doves being released from the church steps.

They were rushed to hospital for treatment.

Detectives began urgent enquiries to locate the driver of the car.

Officers worked quickly to recover CCTV in the hope that one of the cameras would have captured the car involved.

In total they viewed around 2,000 hours' worth of footage to track the car as it sped away.

Video from a bus camera showed the car's number plate and officers made checks to identify the owner, but the vehicle was travelling on cloned plates.

They tracked down the owner of the actual car and he was ruled out of the investigation after providing a credible alibi.

At around the same time, officers received information to suggest Tyrell Lacroix was involved in the shooting.

Phone data showed he had been in contact with two other men in the weeks before the attack.

Planning began in November 2022, when Lacroix found the black Toyota car that would be used in the shooting.

Lacroix was part of a gang in north London and believed members of a rival gang would be at the memorial service.

Over the weeks that followed, he was in contact with Jordan Walters and Alrico Nelson Martin. Martin supplied the sawn-off shotgun.

Days before the shooting, Lacroix and Walters visited the church to survey the area.

On January 14, 2023, Lacroix and Walters were with a third man, Jashy Perch, at his home in Watford.

Detectives recovered taxi booking records that proved Martin had gone to the property at around 12pm to deliver the gun.

A short time later, Lacroix, Walters and Perch left Watford for Euston. They did a number of circuits outside the church before one of them opened fire into the crowd before fleeing the scene.

CCTV  footage showed them overtaking cars, driving on the wrong side of the road, and jumping a red light.

Det Insp Darren Jones, from the Met's Specialist Crime Trident Investigation team, said: "These dangerous men brought unimaginable fear and horror to the streets of London. I am pleased our investigation has resulted in them being convicted.

"They cowardly shot at mourners as they gathered outside a church. The innocent women and girls who were injured will have to deal with the impact of that for the rest of their lives.

"Our investigation has been extensive and complex. It involved recovering and viewing around 2,000 hours of CCTV and piecing together a significant amount of phone location data to identify those responsible."