Drive-by was “targeted attack”
A 32-year-old man was gunned down and another injured yesterday in a drive-by shooting in a Hertfordshire town.
Police said it was a “targeted attack.”
The shooting took place yesterday morning on Brewery Road, near a gymnasium and a supermarket, in the quiet market town of Hoddesdon.
Two Balaclava-clad gunmen in a white transit van sprayed the victims with bullets from an automatic weapon, according to reports.
Police have yet to ascertain a motive for the killing.
The Assistant Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Police Jeremy Alford tried to settle the nerves of worried locals. He said there was no “general threat to people in this locality.”
Mr Alford told Channel Four News: “The nature of the attack was that it appeared to be targeted. We really do believe this may have been a targeted attack against these individuals.
“One of the messages I want to give out to the people of Hoddesdon and the surrounding area is that we don’t feel there is any general threat to people in this locality.
“I want to reassure the public that police forces working really hard and redoubling our efforts to make sure that the scourge of gun crime is eradicated from our streets,” remarked the police official.
The incident comes after the fatal shooting at a jeweller’s shop in Arnold, Nottinghamshire on Wednesday.
Shop owner, Marian Bates, was murdered after trying to prevent robbers from shooting her daughter, Xanthe.
Tory home affairs spokesman, Oliver Letwin commenting on the apparent increase in gun related crime said: “This is the second time in three days that we have seen a fatal shooting in an otherwise quiet part of England.
“Even small children are no longer immune from gun crime in our increasingly violent society.
“Things will get worse until the Government develops a coherent strategy for tackling the law and order crisis.
“In contrast to the Government’s approach we are advocating a long-term coherent strategy to get young people off the conveyor belt to crime and to recruit 40,000 extra police officers to make our streets safer.”
