Tanesha Melbourne-Blake: 50-year-old man arrested over drive-by shooting of teenager in Haringey

Killed 13 weeks before her 18th birthday, teenager had planned to travel to Jamaica

Tanesha Melbourne was killed shortly before her 18th birthday. (PA)

Detectives investigating the drive-by shooting of a teenage girl in north London have arrested a 50-year-old man in connection with the murder.

Seventeen-year-old Tanesha Melbourne-Blake, who mentored younger teenagers to keep them off the streets, was gunned down in Tottenham on 2 April last year.

Two men, aged 31 and 18, were arrested on suspicion of murder and were subsequently released under investigation pending further inquiries. A 22-year-old, also arrested on suspicion of murder, was released on bail.

Tanesha, who had seven siblings, died during a spate of bloodshed in London in 2018.

The teenager, who was killed 13 weeks before her 18th birthday, had planned to travel to Jamaica to visit her father and was due to start a youth work course.

In an appeal for information following her death, her mother said in a statement: "Myself and Tanesha were best friends as well as mother and daughter. The impact of her death is long lasting and still doesn't feel real. It feels as if I'm living in a dream and she'll be coming back. "The impact on her dad and siblings has been indescribable too.

"There is a huge hole in our family that will never be filled."

Speaking after the shooting, Tanesha's friend Tyesha, 21, told the BBC she was "just chilling with her friends" when she was shot.

"The car just pulled up and just started shooting," she said.

Police believe the teenager was shot by someone sitting in the passenger seat of a Vauxhall Meriva.

Earlier this year detective inspector Beverley Kofi said Tanesha had "no gang affiliations whatsoever".