GUN VICTIM: COPS IGNORE TEEN CRIME

 A YOUTH worker who was shot in the leg when he intervened in a row between a group of teenagers has warned that police must do more to stop violence.

The 27-year-old victim was shot after he attempted to defuse a confrontation between more than 30 youths outside the Queen’s Crescent Community centre in Gospel Oak where he works. A 16-year-old boy was also shot in the incident when a bullet ricocheted off a wall and skimmed his face.

The youth worker, who is struggling to walk and still has a bullet in his bone which may be operated on next week, claimed police are never around to break up trouble.

“Most of the shopkeepers here have got my number,” he said. “If the kids are giving them trouble they call me, not the police.

“I don’t like kids who carry knives, guns or sell drugs and swear, so when I see young kids I give them discipline. I don’t get no help from the police. 

“I work Monday to Friday and we don’t get no help from them. I just see them as people who have power but no knowledge to handle kids or handle the area.”

The victim, who did not want his name to be published but who has lived in the area for 10 years, said that he knew who had fired the gun and that the youngster had called him several times to apologise.

There have been three shootings in Gospel Oak since last April. 

Supt Raj Kohli, head of community and partnership policing, denied that there was a breakdown in relations between the police and the community centre. “Our connection with the youth centre is very good,” he said.

Foyezur Miah, director at the Queen’s Crescent Community Centre, said youths who were not involved in gangs or crime had turned to ­carrying weapons to protect themselves.

He said he worried that weapons could be produced over relatively trivial disagreements and said things had got worse in recent months. 

Last week, said Mr Miah, a boy was brutally battered in the street after a snowball fight escalated. “The crowd that were beating him were going to shoot him,” he said. “He was saved by bystanders who pulled him out of there and pulled him into the community centre.” 

Mick Farrant, chairman of the centre’s board of trustees, pointed to a serious attack on a Gospel Oak teenager last month and called for more funding for youth work and a more cohesive approach from all sides, including the council, youth workers and the police.

Conservative ward councillor Keith Sedgwick pledged to ask “some very tough questions of both the council and the police” and called for “more bobbies on the beat at night in this area”. 

A public meeting has been set up by police, to be held on Saturday, in response to Monday’s incident.

Some community leaders paid tribute to the efforts of a previous local police officer who was popular with the community but recently left. Some said they were concerned they had not met the new officer, Sergeant Chris Smith.

Last night (Wednesday), Supt Raj Kohli said of the criticism levelled by the shooting victim: “I’m disappointed in so far as his perception of policing is not how I would want it to be perceived. 

“This man is in shock and has been through a horrific incident but I would invite him to come and discuss things – we have an open-door ­policy. Clearly there’s a perception we should have been more pro-active and I will abso­lutely look into that.”

Lib Dem councillor James King, Camden’s community safety chief, said £50,000 was being spent in the area to improve estate buildings but warned Gospel Oak “will always need to be monitored”. 

He said anti-social behaviour had “been less acute” in recent years, but added: “This is a very serious incident, we need to understand what went on”.

• The public meeting will take place on Saturday at 5pm at the Scout Hut next to the Gospel Oak District Housing Office, 115 Wellesley Road, NW5.