Candles for Toni-Ann, and a plea for help from shoppers who may have murder clues
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Police hunting the killer of a young girl and her father appealed for help yesterday in finding two women seen shopping with the couple the day before the double murder.
Bertram "Tony" Byfield, 41, a convicted drug dealer, spent the day looking for a school uniform and equipment for his daughter, Toni-Ann Byfield. They were shot dead in a bedsit on Brent, in north-west London, on Sunday, in what is thought to have been a drugs-related killing. Police believe the seven-year-old girl was killed to prevent her from identifying the gunman.
Details were released of the couple's shopping trip on Saturday, in the hope of jogging the memory of any witnesses. The pair were shopping from midday to 6pm, looking for a school uniform at Brent Cross shopping centre and later at Matalan in Cricklewood, with two unidentified women and a child, possibly a girl.
Last night, a candlelit vigil was held near the flat in which the pair were killed, as a reflection of the shock of a community. People were invited to say prayers and release balloons to pay tribute to Toni-Ann and her father opposite Kensal Green cemetery.
Cheryl Townsend, from the voluntary group Brent Community Enforcement, told the BBC last night: "I think it has brought it home for us what kind of a community we are living in and how volatile and dangerous that is."
The Rev Nims Obunge, a peace campaigner, added: "Often silence is construed as consent and I think the community has to be very clear and very vocal. We will no longer tolerate in our families, not just our communities, people involved in certain kind of trade which result in what happened to Toni-Ann."
Staff at Slade School in Birmingham also paid tribute to a "bright and lovely girl" who had mixed well with other pupils after joining last November. Andrew Sewell, the headteacher, said: "Although she was at the school for a relatively short time, she will be sadly missed by the staff and pupils. Our thoughts and condolences are with her family and friends."
Police said the road where the killings took place was busy for the time of night. A Total garage about 100 metres from the bedsit had several customers.
A police spokes-man said: "They may well have seen whoever was responsible for the murders either entering or leaving."
Birmingham City Council, which had legal guardianship of Toni-Ann and had moved her from foster parents in the West Midlands to London weeks before the murder, has opened an inquiry.
Who was officially supposed to be looking after Toni-Ann in the capital is still unclear. She had moved to Britain from Jamaica three years ago.