Man charged after drive-by shooting outside London church injured girl, 7, and five others
The memorial service was being held for a mother and daughter who died within a month of each other
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One man has been charged in connection with a drive-by shooting outside a church that injured several people including a child in January.
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that two other men have been arrested in connection with the attack.
Alrico Nelson Martin, 19 from Kilburn, was arrested on Tuesday, 14 March. He was taken into custody and on Wednesday, 15 March was charged with possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and six counts of conspiracy to wound with intent.
A 22-year-old man and a 23-year-old man were arrested on Tuesday, 14 March on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. They were taken into custody where they remain at this time, detectives said.
Metropolitan Police officers were called to the shooting outside St Aloysius Church on Phoenix Road, near Euston station, at 1.29pm on 14 January. A memorial service for a mother and daughter who died within a month of each other was taking place inside at the time.
The force said the girl was in a life-threatening condition, while a 48-year-old woman has potentially life-changing injuries - she remains in hospital undergoing treatment.
Two other injured women, aged 54 and 41, were taken to a hospital to be treated but their condition was not thought to be life-threatening. A second child, aged 12, who had a minor leg injury was also hospitalised.
Officers described the service at the church as a funeral, but Father Jeremy Trood, who conducted the memorial, said it was a requiem mass for Sara Sanchez, 20, and her mother, who died within a month of each other in November.
Ms Sanchez suffered from leukaemia for three years before succumbing to the disease after her mother died suddenly from a rare blood clot on arrival at Heathrow from Colombia, MyLondon reported.
Father Trood said: “I was inside the church. I heard the bang and people ran back into the church. They knew something had happened outside.
“They were very scared, people sheltered in the church until the police said they can leave but some of them were so scared they had to wait a while to get their confidence back up to go outside.
“But I was in the church the whole time so I didn’t actually see what had happened.”
Another witness at St Aloysius Church when the shooting took place told MyLondon: “It was chaos. It was horrible.
“No one knew if it was a bomb or gunman. We were looking for places to hide. We all just snuggled into corners where we could. We left after about 10 minutes, I did not dare [leave before]. It was not nice.”
Following the shooting, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the shooting was “deeply distressing” and his “thoughts are with those who were injured and their families”.
“A police investigation is now under way and I am in close contact with the Met Police to determine what happened,” he said.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: “I am deeply shocked by the shooting in Euston and want to thank the emergency services for their response.”