Staff ReporterTeenager accused of attempted murder shooting led away as relatives wept and cried out: “We love you”.
UK: TWO teenagers, one of them Zimbabwean, have appeared in court charged with attempted murder following a series of shootings in Huddersfield described as “ongoing gang warfare.”
Armed police were called as detectives launched a major investigation after shots were fired at several locations across the town.
In one incident, a taxi driver was hurt after a gun was fired at his cab in Holays, Dalton. An hour later shots were aimed at a car in New House Road, Deighton.
On Friday at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court it was revealed that the shootings are believed to have been carried out by two rival gangs in order to settle disputes between them.
Ryan Ncube, 18, of Scott Vale in Deighton appeared in court charged with attempted murder.
He was joined in the secure custody dock by his co-accused, a 17-year-old man from Dalton who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The shootings took place over just five days and both teenagers are alleged to have been involved in two of these murder attempts.
They include the attack on the Huddersfield Taxis driver last Thursday night.
Shots were fired at passengers in the back of the cab and the Huddersfield court heard that the driver was hit in his back by eight shotgun pellets.
In the incident later the same night, an occupied VW Golf was hit by bullets, an incident both defendants were also allegedly involved with.
The youth is charged with a third murder attempt following the drive-by shooting on Dalton Fold Road in Rawthorpe on the evening of Saturday, July 22.
During that alleged incident shots were fired towards two men who were with two women.
Nobody was hurt but firearms officers attended the scene and found shotgun pellets by the side of a house.
The teenagers appeared in the dock flanked by three dock officers.
A member of court security staff was drafted in to supervise the packed public gallery inside courtroom number one.
Neither Ncube, wearing a black long-sleeved top with grey jogging bottoms nor his co-defendant, dressed in a light grey T-shirt with darker trousers, entered pleas to the charges put to them.
District Judge Michael Fanning remanded both into custody ahead of their first appearance at Leeds Crown Court on September 1.
As Ncube was led away, several family members wept and cried out: “We love you.”
*This article is taken from The Huddersfield Daily Examiner.
