A hired thug has been found guilty over a botched drive-by shooting that left a schoolgirl with a bullet lodged in her brain – but the gunman is still at large.
The nine-year-old schoolgirl was eating ice cream when she was struck with the first of six bullets blasted into a Mediterranean restaurant in north London.
The child became an innocent victim of a blood-soaked rivalry between two Turkish gangs in the capital and had to have her skull rebuilt with titanium.
The bullet remains lodged in her brain and medics said she will have physical and cognitive difficulties for the rest of her life.
Javon Riley, 33, was found guilty of attempting to murder three men who were the intended targets, as well as causing grievous harm with intent to the girl.
He refused to surrender any information about the gunman, however, and Scotland Yard have offered a £15,000 reward for any intelligence that leads to his prosecution.
The mother of the girl, who is too young to be named, said the shooter, who had been riding a stolen Ducati Monster motorcycle, had torn away the future she had imagined for her daughter.
‘This was not just an accident — even if our daughter was not the intended target, those responsible were still attempting to take lives, It is brutal and inhumane,’ she added.
‘Now, weakness on her left side means she can only watch from the sidelines, living with a titanium plate in her skull and a bullet still in her brain. As parents, we are shattered — emotionally, physically, mentally, and financially. Each day brings new challenges, from her slower growth on one side to the emotional and mental scars that cannot be seen.’
The three targeted men running for cover as a gunman opens fire on a Turkish restaurant in Dalston
The gunman drives past the restaurant and opens fire, shooting six bullets in a matter of seconds
Javon Riley, 33, was today found guilty of attempted murder at the Old Bailey
A CCTV image issued by Metropolitan Police of the motorcyclist wanted in connection with the shooting at the restaurant in Dalston, East London, in May 2024, who has never been traced
Three men who were sitting at a nearby table in the Evin Restaurant were also struck in the hail of bullets on the evening of May 29 last year.
Nasser Ali, 43, was shot in his backbone. Kenan Aydogdu, 45, was hit in the leg – and Mustafa Kiziltan, 35, was wounded in the thigh.
The trio were members of the Hackney Turks gang and the assassination attempt was organised by their fierce rivals, the Tottenham Turks, who are locked in a bitter feud that has spread across Europe.
Police believe the warring gangs are responsible for more than 20 murders in the past two decades.
Detective inspector Ben Dalloway, of the Metropolitan Police, said the shooting was another example of ‘tit-for-tat violent incidents’ between the gangs.
‘You’ll have one member of one OCG [organised crime group] shot, stabbed, murdered, and then within months, sometimes even less, there will be retaliation,’ he said.
Indeed, the Tottenham Turks leader Izzet Eren was gunned down in Moldova, where he fled after escaping from prison in Turkey, just six weeks after the shooting in Dalston.
And earlier this month, Erdal Ozmen, 45, a senior member of the Hackney Turks, was gunned down just half a mile away from the Evin Restaurant.
Law enforcement sources said Ozmen’s assassination was thought to be to avenge Eren’s murder.
Forensic officers conducting a search outside the restaurant after the shooting in May 2024
Police stand guard outside the scene of the shooting in Dalston, East London, in May last year
Tottenham Turks boss Izzet Eren (pictured) was shot dead in Moldova just six weeks after the shooting in Dalston
The bloody war is understood to have been sparked after Hackney Turk capo Kemal Armagan was beaten up by Eren and his cousin Kemal Eren at the Manor Club snooker hall in north London in January 2009.
The attack was followed by a series of revenge contract killings in the UK and beyond.
Eren was jailed in London for 21 years in 2015 after being caught with a submachine gun on the way to murder a Hackney Turk.
The same year, Jermaine Baker, 28, was shot dead by police outside Wood Green Crown Court as members of the Tottenham Turks tried to spring the gang leader from a prison van.
Eren was moved to a Turkish jail in 2019 and escaped a month later, before he was shot in Moldova in July.
Erdal Ozmen, linked with the Hackney Turks was shot dead in Stoke Newington the early hours of August 6
And Dr Mahmut Cengiz, an adjunct faculty at the Department of Criminology, Law and Society of George Mason University, said the bloodshed was likely to continue and he expected a ‘strong response’ to the latest shootings, with senior members of both groups likely to be targeted.
‘If you are…able to kill a group leader, it means that you are the most powerful organisation,’ he said.
The Taliban’s 2022 edict banning the cultivation of opium poppies used to make heroin was having a knock-on effect across Europe, with shortages meaning gangs were becoming more ferocious to maintain market share, he added.
Riley, who admitted carrying out reconnaissance and picking up the gunman, had claimed he thought the job, for which he was promised about £40,000, would be a ‘smash and grab’ robbery.
The Jamaican-born gangster has a string of convictions dating back to 2008 and will be sentenced on September 12.
