Postcode gang murder in Sheffield remains unsolved 11 years on

Jonathan Matondo was shot dead 11 years ago this month in a killing which shocked Sheffield and blew the lid off a deadly feud in which rival gang members from Burngreave and Pitsmoor were at war.

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Jonathan, from Verdon Street, Burngreave, was killed close to a children's playground at the Nottingham Cliff recreation ground in Burngreave, with detectives believing he was targeted by a rival gang in a postcode gang war which spiralled out of control.

It led to South Yorkshire Police revealing for the first time that two armed gangs, known as S3 and S4, were involved in a long-running feud at that time.

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In the two years before Jonathan's murder, a police dossier revealed 38 incidents involving the gangs had been reported and had led to the recovery of six guns.

Jonathan, who moved to Sheffield when he was six years old to escape a deadly civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was a member of the S3 gang.

His family had believed he had wanted to become a Christian pastor, but the teenager was known on the streets as '˜Venomous' and carried a knife and a gun.

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At the time of his death, Jonathan was serving a supervision order for a robbery committed in 2006. Just a few days before his murder Jonathan admitted to a friend that he had either stabbed or slashed somebody in an incident in The Vibe nightclub in Sheffield city centre.

Detectives believe Jonathan was targeted in retaliation for a shooting at a house belonging to relatives of an S4 member the night before.

There was a failed attempt on Jonathan's life a few hours before he was killed, when shots were fired at him while he visited a friend's flat on Melrose Road, Pitsmoor.

But he was finally assassinated when he was shot in his head from a distance of around 60ft by a gun with a red laser device attached to pinpoint the target.

The same gun used to kill Jonathan had been used to fire at another S3 member's home two months earlier.

A 19-year-old man, who spent a year in custody, stood trial twice over the murder but walked free.

Jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the first trial and he was found not guilty after a re-trial.

Detectives at the time said they believed a number of people were involved in the killing and that officers would 'relentlessly pursue' them but to date nobody else has ever been charged.

Chief Crown Prosecutor at that time, Nigel Cowgill, said: 'It may never be known who pulled the trigger.' Jonathan's murder was one of three involving S3 gang members in the space of a year, with the other two the result of the S3 gang imploding and rival factions forming.

Brett Blake, 23, was stabbed to death on the dancefloor of Uniq nightclub on Carver Street in Sheffield city centre in June 2008 after a series for tit-for-tat attacks.

Danny Hockenhull, from, Grimesthorpe and Curtis Goring, from Firth Park, were jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 21 years behind bars before the minimum tariff was reduced to 18 on appeal. One month later, Tarek Chaiboub, 17, from Wincobank, was shot dead in an attack ordered by a fellow S3 member while he was behind bars.

The teenager was blamed for passing on information which led to an attack on another S3 member.

Nigel Junior Ramsey, who was known as '˜The General' and ran the younger element of the S3 gang, ordered Tarek's murder from behind bars - instructing his younger brother Denzil Ramsey, his next door neighbour Levan Menzies and friend Michael Chattoo, to carry out the killing.

He was shot at Frenchie's barbers in Spital Street, Burngreave, and his killers were jailed for a total of 110 years after being found guilty of murder.

Anyone with information should call South Yorkshire Police on 101.