Jonathan Matondo: The unsolved murder of teenage boy gunned down in Sheffield
Nearly two decades have passed since a 16-year-old boy was shot dead in a postcode gang war which sent shockwaves across Sheffield and the UK.
Next month marks the 18th anniversary of the murder of Jonathan Matondo, who was gunned down in a violent inner-city feud, but to date nobody is behind bars over the death.
Ironically, Jonathan came to Sheffield for a better life as a young boy to escape a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But on October 18, 2007, his family’s dreams were shattered after Jonathan paid the price for becoming embroiled with a postcode gang operating in Sheffield at that time.
Jonathan said goodbye to his mum as she went to church that day and it was the last time she ever saw her beloved son alive.
The teenager’s family had believed that Jonathan had wanted to become a church preacher, but he was leading a secret life they knew nothing about.
He was a gang member who was known to have carried a gun and a blade and he was known on the streets as ‘Venomous’.
On the day Jonathan was killed - on the Nottingham Cliff recreation ground in Burngreave - there had been another failed attempt to shoot the teenager just hours earlier, when shots were fired at him as he visited a friend’s flat.
It is believed that he was targeted that day after a house belonging to relatives of an S4 gang member was fired at the night before.
A suspect was charged over Jonathan’s murder and stood trial twice.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict after the first trial and found him not guilty after a second.
Detectives believe that Jonathan was ‘targeted and ruthlessly killed’ in an ‘organised and planned attack’.
Forensic work established that the gun used to kill Jonathan had been used to fire at another S3 member's home two months earlier.
In the two years before Jonathan’s murder, police compiled a dossier of 38 incidents involving the feuding S3 and S4 gangs, and a number of firearms were seized.
There had been a series of stabbings, shootings and tit-for-tat attacks leading up to the killing.
Jonathan’s murder is one of a number of unsolved cases on South Yorkshire Police’s books, with the force having a specialist review team which re-examines historic killings to look for potential new leads.
Anyone with information should call South Yorkshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.