Gun gang guilty of killing dancer in south London

A teenage gang who went "on the prowl" with a loaded gun have been found guilty of killing a professional dancer.

Daniel Famakinwa, 20, was gunned down near a snooker hall in south London as he waited for a night bus on August 6 last year.

His attackers were carrying the loaded weapon as "their idea of a good night out", prosecutors said.

Ezekiel Charles-Sterling, 19, of Upper Norwood, south London, fired the fatal shot and was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey yesterday.

He was also convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possession of a prohibited firearm.

Today, Romelle Bogle, 18, of Brixton, Joshua Chieke, 18, of Stockwell, Christopher Perry, 18, of Streatham, and Adrian Rhodes, 19, of Stockwell, all south London, were cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC said: "This is a teenage gang on the prowl in London with a loaded firearm and their idea of a good night out is the inevitability of confrontation - either seeking it or at least anticipating it - secure in the knowledge of their shared secret, namely that they will triumph in any confrontation because they have a gun."

Charles-Sterling was "egged on" by the other four men, with Rhodes aiming a flying kick at Mr Famakinwa as he and his friends were hemmed in against a shop front.

Mr Famakinwa, 20, had left the snooker hall, which doubled as a dance venue at weekends, with his friends at around 3.45am and was waiting in Norwood Road, West Norwood, for a bus when he was shot.

Mr Jafferjee said: "Barely 20 minutes after Daniel and his friends had emerged from the club... doing nothing more than just larking about amongst themselves and causing no offence to anyone at all, Daniel lay fatally bleeding, having been shot."

Around a month later, Rhodes fired the same 9mm pistol near a nightclub in Charterhouse Street in the City of London.

He was convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a prohibited firearm.

The men will be sentenced on July 11.

Demmar Dawkins, 18, of West Norwood, was was cleared of murder at an earlier stage of the trial.

PA