Forensic team collect evidence from the shooting including bullet casings
The gun attack on a house in Hampton happened after a failed attempt to steal a scooter, according to later reports.
The motorbike thieves fired bullets into a teenager’s bedroom window after trying to steal a scooter from his family’s front garden, says a report in the Daily Telegraph.
The attack comes after a series of bike and motorbike thefts by gangs on scooters targeting residential homes.
Two youths appeared to have attempted to steal an electric scooter parked outside a terraced house in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The homeowner said that, having failed to disarm the lock on the scooter, the gang fired through a ground-floor window in apparent frustration. The bullets missed his 17-year-old son, who was sleeping in the room, says the Telegraph report.
“It was terrifying,” the homeowner, who asked not to be named, told The Telegraph.
“It was sheer malicious, vindictive behaviour. It looks like they fired through the window in anger at not being able to steal our scooter, which was locked outside.”
He said the street and others nearby had been plagued by gangs of youths on mopeds attempting to steal bicycles, motorbikes and scooters, often left overnight in residents’ front gardens.
The house targeted in Linden Road, Hampton
On several occasions, the gangs appear to have used angle grinders to remove heavy locks used to secure motorbikes.
The homeowner said: “They repeatedly target this street and others. You can see them on doorbell footage riding up and down looking for bikes and scooters to steal.
“This time it looked like they couldn’t disable our scooter lock, which is when they began shooting. You can see two bullet holes in our front window.
“The bullets went across the room where my 17-year-old son was sleeping and hit the wall opposite. God knows what might have happened. These people have no consideration for anyone but themselves.”
One resident said she had recently rushed downstairs to confront a gang trying to steal her motorbike outside her home.
Danni Johnson, 32, said: “We live a couple of streets away and there’s been a spate of these gangs driving around on mopeds trying to steal motorbikes from outside people’s homes. They’re always circling the streets to suss out what they can steal.
“I heard them one night and me and my boyfriend ran out and chased them away. We won’t be doing that now that we know they’re armed. It’s so scary to think about what happened.”
