Tragic gun-crime history of Birmingham

Jul 5 2009 by Mark Cowan, Sunday Mercury

THE spate of shootings that plagued Birmingham last summer started on July 26 with a drive-by incident on Birmingham’s Belgrave Middleway, in which shots were believed to have been fired at another car.

On August 5 gunmen fired on a car in the Monument Road, Ladywood, hitting Stephon Davidson in the neck. The 19 year-old died from his injuries.

A week later, another young man was injured in a shooting in Raleigh Close, Handsworth.

Two innocent people, a man and a woman, were injured when shots were fired at the Irish Centre in Digbeth, which was hosting a christening on August 17.

Then, on August 23, Dimitri Foskin was gunned down near his city home. The 24 year-old was found slumped in the driveway of a house in Newtown, after being shot in the chest. A man, 20, from Kings Norton has been charged with his murder.

This year has already seen a number of apparently unconnected incidents. In April, Dominique Grant, aged 20, from Edgbaston, was shot dead following an argument in nearby Uplands Road. A 21 year-old has been charged with his murder.

On May 9 a man was gunned down in a drive-by shooting outside the Flex Fitness gym in Moseley Street, Highgate.

Meanwhile, two men were wounded when up to eight shots were fired in Albert Road, Handsworth, on May 26 and two others were wounded when a gunman opened fire on a group of men sitting on a garden wall outside a house in Albert Road, Aston, hitting two teenagers aged 18 and 19 in the legs.