'Can't stop, won't stop': The tragedy behind dead Gooch boss Lee Amos' lethal vendetta
23.04.2024 - 17:21
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
It was, said a police chief, an 'exceptional' weekend for gun crime. Two people killed and four left injured in four shootings across Greater Manchester.
The madness began on the evening of Friday February 15, 2002, when a 40-year-old man was shot dead in Crumpsall. Two men were then shot the next evening in Moss Side, and, the next day, a man and his girlfriend were both injured when a gunman fired into the couple's home in Horwich, Bolton.
The final incident was hours later - at 1am on Monday February 18. The aftermath of that would ripple through Manchester's streets for years. It was the killing of Stephen Baba-Tunde Amos, aged 21, of Longsight, Manchester, shot outside Bexx Bar in Ashton-under-Lyne.
Stephen and a 25-year-old pal were outside the venue in Old Cross Street, when they were the victims of a drive-by shooting. Both had earlier attended a family birthday party and had then taken a taxi to the bar which Stephen knew well.
There was an altercation inside and several shots were fired from a handgun while both men were standing at the entrance. Stephen was killed by a single shot to the chest, while his friend survived, despite being seriously injured. The suspects fled in a stolen Mitsubishi Space Star hatchback, taken from Heaton Moor in Stockport.
More than 100 people had been leaving the club after last orders when the attack took place.
Stephen was a celebrated DJ, making his name in Manchester's Havana Bar and The World club in Warrington. He has also been on the books of Manchester City as a youth.
At the time of the murder Stephen's mother, Linda Barlow, made an impassioned appeal for help to find her son's killer. "Stephen's death has torn our family apart,'' she said. ''We are devastated."
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