‘No one’s safe anymore’: Parents’ fears after Olivia Pratt-Korbel, 9, shot dead in Liverpool
Shocked parents tell The Independent that they fear such shootings could happen to ‘anyone’
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In Liverpool, on the stretch of Kingsheath Avenue that was not behind a police cordon on Tuesday afternoon, children could be seen playing out in the street.
Toddlers pushed toy prams along pavements. Primary school-aged youngsters rode bikes and scooters. Teenagers kicked a ball about on a scrap of land just around the corner.
Yet, overnight, the killing of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in this family neighbourhood of the city’s Dovecot district had caused widespread revulsion, horror and fear.
The school girl was shot dead after a masked gunman – who police said was firing “with complete disregard” while chasing a second man – burst into the house that she lived in with her mother.
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Parents living here say the horror has now them to question their own children’s safety. Such is the fear here that few gave their names to The Independent amid concerns that they would be targeted for reprisals by those responsible for the killing.
“I’ve had to get up today and tell my kids that the kid they play with all summer holiday has been shot dead,” said a mother-of-two who declined to reveal her identity.
“How do you explain that to children? I can’t even understand it myself. It’s disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. That poor family.”
Olivia – who was a pupil at Huyton’s St Margaret Mary’s Catholic Junior School – was well-known and well-liked by residents of the street where she is reported to have lived with her mother and older sister.
“Lovely girl,” said one resident, a woman who has a 10-year-old daughter. “Always smiling... I saw the police arriving late last night and thought something bad must have happened but to wake up today and find this... it’s terrifying.
“It’s a lovely community but things like this, they seem to be happening all the time. And no one’s safe anymore. It could be anyone. It could be my kids.”
Another neighbour, Marie Reilly, who has lived in the area for almost 40 years, said her partner had heard four gunshots while he was sitting watching the football on TV. “I think it’s time to move,” said the grandmother.
A father – whose 11-year-old daughter lives on Kingsheath Avenue with her mother – said he had also raised the prospect of them leaving the area of late.
“The community spirit here is so strong and they’re good houses with big gardens so she [his daughter’s mother] won’t even consider moving,” said the 31-year-old who gave his name only as Adrian.
“But I wake up this morning and a nine-year-old girl has been shot dead, and mine’s 11 so your first thought is ‘it’s not mine’ but your second thought is: but it could have been.”
While figures suggest gun and knife violence has been on the decline in Liverpool over the past decade, Adrian said he felt that such crime was becoming an issue again.
The killing on Monday night happened on the same night a woman was fatally stabbed in Kirkby and a day after a 28-year-old council worker was shot dead in the Old Swan neighbourhood in a suspected case of mistaken identity.
“It’s Liverpool,” said Adrian. “So you get gangs and just from what I hear, there are more guns out there again. Will this person be caught? They shouldn’t have to be caught. They should be handing themselves in.”
Meanwhile, Olivia’s headteacher Rebecca Wilkinson has described her as a pupil with a “beautiful smile, a lovely sense of humour and a bubbly personality”.
By Tuesday evening, some flowers had been laid in memory of the slain schoolgirl by the police cordon.
When asked why there were not more, one neighbour suggested that locals did not want to be photographed by the media while they paid tribute.