‘Never fully safe’ - Students share thoughts on Sheffield’s safety after fatal bank holiday shooting
A Bank Holiday shooting on West Street has sent shockwaves around Sheffield
“We should all be able to go on nights out and know that we will come home safely.”
Those were the words of Detective Chief Inspector Andy Knowles, who is tasked with investigating the murder of Sheffield mum Shanice Brookes after she was shot on West Street in the early hours of Monday, May 25.
Shanice was in the prime of her life. A 30-year-old, who was simply enjoying a night out with her friends in one of the city’s party hotspots.
Sheffield was her home city. It was where she was raising her young son.
It’s also a place where she should have had a bright future having been just weeks away from finishing her course in photography, videography and graphic design, according to her Linkedin page.
In a heartbreaking a post, just 10 days before the shooting, Shanice wrote on Instagram: “2026 has been so full with love and memories, truly grateful and can’t wait for what the rest of the year brings.”
Instead her life was cruelly cut short when she was shot dead outside a city centre bar.
It’s a damaging moment for the friends and family of Shanice, and for the city as a whole, with bars calling for improved security measures and open lines of communication between venues regardless of competition.
With that in mind, The Star asked students if they’d still feel safe on a night out in Sheffield - and moving forwards what extra measures they’d like to see police put in place to avoid a repeat of sich a tragedy.
Eva Beitia, a students at the University of Sheffield, said: “I don’t think I’d feel as safe as usual. But you never know what can happen and I guess you can never feel completely safe.
“When things like this happen it makes you more aware of the fact you can never be fully safe.”
Eva went on to suggest that there should be more security measures in place to make people feel safe on an evening, comments which were echoed by another student John Cartwright, who added: “The fact that a student was shot is really worrying. How does that kind of thing just happen?
“I’d like to see more police out in West Street. Potentially armed police officers if that’s possible.”