Sheffield double shooting: 60 years' jail for trio behind shooting which left mum with gunshot wound to face

19-year-old Kai Smith was brought before Grimsby Crown Court today, Tuesday, March 29, to be sentenced for his involvement in a double-shooting that was carried out in the Manor area of Sheffield on January 6 last year.

Smith’s co-accused, Connor Hadi, 27, formerly of Toll Bar Avenue, Sheffield, and Bradley Jenkins, 30, formerly of Waverley View, Rotherham, were jailed for 27 years each in September last year, following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court in which jurors found the pair guilty of attempted murder and firearms offences.

Judge Peter Kelson QC sentenced Smith to six years in a young offenders’ institute, bringing the trio’s jail time to a combined total of 60 years.

Prosecution barrister Jonathan Sandiford QC told the court how on the evening of the shooting, Smith, along with Hadi and Jenkins, and a fourth, unidentified man, went searching for a 23-year-old man known to the group, armed with a shotgun and ammunition.

The group were travelling in a stolen black Nissan Qashqai, fitted with false plates; and after locating the man on Castledale Croft, shots were fired into the group of people he was with, hitting the mother of their intended target in the face and shoulder.

Mr Sandiford said that after the first shooting, ‘Smith and the other males ran onto Prince of Wales Road’, where they encountered the man they had been looking for, and he was shot at several times.

"He was hit in the arm, and he ran towards his father’s vehicle shouting: ‘Dad, they’ve got me’,” Mr Sandiford said.

The group fled the scene, leaving the stolen vehicle abandoned nearby.

Mr Sandiford said the woman was left with gunshot wounds to the right side of her face and shoulder, but ‘fortunately she escaped any serious injury’ and did not require medical intervention beyond initial treatment of the injuries suffered.

Her son came to hospital of his own volition, and a nurse found he had suffered ‘five puncture wounds to his arm’, continued Mr Sandiford, but he subsequently discharged himself and declined to make a police statement.

The motive for the attack was not discussed during the hearing, but Hadi and Jenkins are believed to have been involved in an argument with the male they targeted earlier that evening, during an incident on Hastilar Road South.

Smith’s barrister, Tana Adkin QC, said it ‘seems to have been something to do with a girlfriend’ of both Jenkins and the man targeted in the attack.

Smith, of Villiers Close, Arbourthorne, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and to one count of possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life on the first day of his trial on March 28.

Mr Sandiford explained that Smith had also been charged with two counts of attempted murder, but not guilty pleas were accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service on the basis that through his guilty pleas to the other charges, Smith accepted that he knew the ‘team would shoot at’ their intended target ‘if located’.

Ms Adkin said Smith, who was days away from turning 18 at the time of the shooting, had not been involved in the theft of the car or the procurement, or discharge, of the firearm.

She told the court that following medical assessment, a doctor determined that Smith had a ‘significantly low’ IQ of 62, with a degree of ‘cognitive impairment’ as well as a ‘mild to moderate’ learning disability.

Speaking after today’s sentencing, Detective Superintendent Paul Murphy said: “This is the sort of work that South Yorkshire Police prides itself on. Yes, unfortunately there was a discharge but we’ve taken three dangerous people off the street and have made South Yorkshire a safer place by putting those people in prison.”