The gang murder boasts filmed for a school project
CHILDREN as young as eight are being recruited as gang members in the area where a five-year-old girl was shot in a shop last week.
They boast of their loyalty on videos posted on the internet, where they rap to violent and sexually explicit lyrics.
In one film made by Shanelle Bartley, 18, girls and boys as young as eight sing about being members of gangs and wanting to shoot rivals.
Shanelle used to live on the Acre Lane estate in Stockwell, south London. It is home to the Acre Lane Campaign gang on which police are said to be focusing their inquires over the shooting of five-year-old Thusha Kamaleswaran.
In one shocking clip, an eight-year-old girl waves the Acre Lane Campaign’s trademark blue scarf before rapping to the camera: “**** your mum, I’ll shoot my gun, ’cos ALC bang bang bang.”
Another boy in the film, who appears to be no more than nine, raps to the camera: “I’ll take out my pistol and bust your knees in. The next day you’re on the floor bleedin’.”
Police are desperate to find others involved in the shooting at the Stockwell Food and Wine store
Shanelle made the short film, Pushed To The Trigger, as part of her studies at Lambeth College.
Anthony McCalla, 19, from Streatham, was yesterday remanded in custody by Camberwell magistrates on two counts of attempted murder over the shooting of Thusha and 35-year-old Roshan Selvakumar. He will appear at the Old Bailey in June.
A 14-year-old boy was also being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder.
Police are desperate to find others involved in the shooting at the Stockwell Food and Wine store before they are attacked by rival gangs and have offered protection to those who come forward.
Last night Thusha’s mother Sharmila said: “This has caused much shock for me and my family. As any mother, I have deep love for all my children and what has happened to my Thusha has left me feeling empty inside. I cannot eat or sleep properly until she opens her eyes.
“I ask for any person who knows about those responsible to come forward and speak to the police. I do not wish this to happen to another family.”
There are 50 gangs operating in Lambeth, the borough that includes Stockwell, and the latest shooting is believed to be revenge for a stabbing just days earlier of a 17-year-old boy.
In a gang murder that was the culmination of a turf war, a boy of 16 was savaged by a dog as he was being stabbed to death.
Former Police Community Support Officer Lorna Jacques filmed girls talking about gang violence while she worked in Stockwell on the Metropolitan Police’s Summer Project, aimed at keeping youngsters off the streets.
The girls, who were speaking in the wake of the unsolved murder of 16-year-old Abukar Mahamud, who was shot in the neck after being chased by youths on bicycles, said the gangs tried to recruit Year 6 pupils outside the gates of primary schools.
They revealed to the shocked policewoman how one 15-year-old girl had brought a gun to school that had been given to her by her father.
Lorna, who now works for a children’s charity, said: “It was particularly difficult, especially for boys when they saw friends who were successful and popular were linked to these gangs.
“It is hard for them to have a way out unless they change their circumstances or move to a new area.
“I think it takes lots of guts and courage to change the crowd of people you hang around with.”
