Four men jailed after funeral drive-by shooting left pellet next to girl’s heart

Four men have been jailed after a funeral drive-by shooting left a little girl with a shotgun pellet embedded in a muscle close to her heart.

Four women and two girls, aged 11 and seven, were shot with a sawn-off shotgun fired into a crowd of people outside a funeral at St Aloysius Church in Phoenix Road, Euston, in January 2023.

Tyrell Lacroix, 23; Jashy Perch, 20; Jordan Walters, 24; and Alrico Nelson-Martin, 20; were sentenced for conspiracy to wound with intent to cause serious harm, at Kingston Crown Court on Friday.

Perch was also sentenced for having an offensive weapon and for possession of cannabis. While Nelson-Martin was also sentenced for possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life.

Lacroix was jailed for 21 years with a further five years on licence, Perch was jailed for 16 years with a further four years on licence, Walters was jailed for 13 years, and Nelson-Martin was jailed for 14 years.

The court heard that one of the little girls sustained gunshot wounds to her arms, legs, and pelvic region, as well as one pellet lodging in a muscle next to her heart.

In a victim impact statement, the girl’s mother said she had asked her, “mummy, why has this happened to me?”

The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: “She felt like she had done something wrong and could not understand why.”

She added that the incident had “taken away” her daughter’s innocence.

One of the women was also left with serious injuries that have affected her hearing and balance.

In a victim impact statement, she said: “I am half the woman I was before.”

The memorial service was a requiem Mass for Sara Sanchez, 20, and her mother, Fresia Calderon, 50, who died in November 2022.

Ms Sanchez had suffered from leukaemia for three years. She died after her mother died suddenly from a rare blood clot on arrival at Heathrow from Colombia.

The planning of the attack began in November 2022 when Lacroix found the black Toyota car that would be used in the shooting, Scotland Yard said.

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

Sentencing Lacroix, Judge Mark Bryant-Heron QC said: “You, Tyrell Lacroix, had been stabbed in an attack by a rival gang member almost exactly a year before the shooting.

“And you, Tyrell Lacroix, were set on revenge. Your co-conspirators played their part in helping you to get your revenge.

“It is the misfortune of those that organised the memorial service that the deceased people who were being commemorated were from the Regent’s Park estate, an area regarded by you as territory under the control of the Cumbo gang.”