Burngreave Sheffield: Residents talk of fear and blame drugs over police incidents ‘happening too often’

Usually, there would be traffic snaking its way along the street towards the town centre.

This morning, as police investigated a suspected murder, the street was nearly silent, the rumble of engines absent. The only noise at the junction with Catherine Road was the voices of police officers explaining to pedestrians that they could not come through a police line. In one case officers had to politely explain to an upset and angry passer-by, they would have to take a diversion.

One man, smartly dressed in a suit, had to ask for directions as he had to change his plans for a job interview that morning.

Blue police tape appeared to run in all directions, a cobweb of blue and white.

Police cars were parked at each of the cordon on Burngreave Road, with a third car parked near the junction of Catherine Road and Bressingham Road, where more police tape was positioned.

‘Road closed’ signs were also positioned further along the Burngreave Road both north and south of the cordon.

Catherine Road and Kilton Hill

One man peered down his street near the Catherine Road junction, seeing the cordon for the first time this morning, as he walked quietly to his car with his family.

He said despite reports of a shooting, he felt safe enough.

“You get this sort of thing in any area,” he said. “But it’s certainly very rare.”

Another man slowed down on his bike as he approached the cordon from the Catherine Road side, down Catherine Street.

He paused and asked what had happened.

He said: “I’ve lived here all my life, and I'm 60. But I’ve never seen it sealed off here like this before.

“You do hear about the odd one on one incident though.”

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He said he lived nearby and felt safe in the area, but added that was speaking as someone who was not involved in anything illegal. He was not sure how safe things were for people involved in disputes over crime.

“You can get this anywhere,” he added.

Murder investigation

On the southern end of the cordon, closer to Ellesmere Green, feelings appeared to be different.

One man, working in a nearby shop, said he had heard that there had been a shooting, possibly a drive-by gun attack.

A motive for the shooting has not yet been suggested by South Yorkshire Police.

The shopworker said: “It’s scary. Perhaps it's drugs related? But it’s still scary. You seem to get this now and again around here, but you still feel uncomfortable about it, especially when there are kids around in the area.

"But everyone just gets on with their lives here – let's hope they do something about drugs in the area.”

Another man working near Burngreave Road agreed people were concerned, and blamed drugs in the area.

He said: “People have told me that they heard gunshots, but what happened, I don’t know.

“I don’t feel safe, especially with nephews and nieces in the area.

“The same things seem to keep happening. It feels like there is something happening three or four times a month, where there is something closed off by police here in Burngreave.

“I think we definitely need more police around here, and people locally seem to blame drugs for the problems.”

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