Man, 21, shot dead in ‘organised execution' on April Fool's Day, court told
A 21-year-old man was lured out of a house and shot dead on the doorstep in a 'planned, organised execution' on April Fool's Day, a court has heard.
Janayo Lucima suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest having been shot at close range by Mohamed Mansaray, 18, jurors were told on Monday.
Although Mansaray pulled the trigger outside the address in Barons Court, west London, the killing was orchestrated by Khuder Al Kurdi, 22, from his home nearby, it is claimed.
Eight others were allegedly with Mansaray to provide him with 'back up, support and encouragement', although two of them have since fled to Somalia and Libya to avoid prosecution, jurors heard.
Mansaray, Al Kurdi and six others are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of Mr Lucima's murder.
Outlining the case against them, prosecutor Alan Gardner KC said Mansaray had been standing outside the house waiting for Mr Lucima to come out.
Mr Gardner said: 'He was lured out of that house and into the sights of the waiting gunman by a phone call from the first defendant, Khuder Al Kurdi.
'This was a planned and organised execution arising from disputes within the drugs trade.'
CCTV footage had captured the incident shortly after 10pm on Monday April 1 2024 in Comeragh Road, a residential area in Barons Court.
Mr Gardner told jurors: 'That is, of course, unpleasant footage to watch, but it is essential that you see it in order to fully understand what happened in this case.'
The handgun used to kill Mr Lucima was disposed of and has not been recovered, the court was told.
It had allegedly come from Al Kurdi who, jurors were told, played a 'central role' in organising the shooting.
Al Kurdi, of Barons Court, and Mansaray have denied murder along with co-defendants Muktar Said, 23, of Hammersmith; Issa Siteri, 19, of Kensington; Yusuf Abdi, 19, of Westminster; Pharrell Cowans, 18, and two 17-year-old boys, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
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Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Yahoo
Opinion - How to bring down a storied think-tank? Humiliation works.
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Wilson Center staff went proactively silent, even when approached by the press. This was not a lack of courage. Indeed, we believe it was a collective act of kindness. No one wanted to put their more vulnerable colleagues at greater risk while sensitive negotiations were underway to secure severance and health care for people who needed to buy groceries and pay rent. Silence seemed to be a virtue. And that is precisely what authoritarians count on. Uncertainty about the present and the future is what they exploit. Intimidation need not be explicit; indeed, it is often more powerful when victims must guess how far their tormentors are willing to go and are forced to act on limited knowledge. Here is the Polish, 1980s version of how it happens, as one of us, then a Fulbright Scholar in martial law Poland, witnessed. From the street sweeper to the head of a hospital, university, theater or government agency, everyone was forced to navigate a steady state of insecurity, uncertain what provocations could happen in the next day or hour. All of society was made aware that nothing was firmly guaranteed, neither jobs nor status, and especially not human dignity. One day, university presidents were fired. The next day, the regime demanded that professors sign loyalty oaths or surrender their jobs. A respected journalist who dared, in guarded language, to report facts suddenly found himself a taxi driver to support his family. The regime honored the law when it was convenient, flouted it when inconvenient. Poles called it 'uncertain tomorrow.' This is a lesson. Humiliation can be imposed in a variety of ways: required oaths, a shocking fall from grace and position, a strip search, a searched apartment, being forced to stand in line for hours for basic food staples or watching any of that happen to family, friends and colleagues. Whole books have been written seeking to understand how human beings respond to such conditions, whether they accept dependence or take the tougher road of refusal. We do not think our country is Poland under communism yet. At the moment, humiliation is not a feature of every contact with the formal organs of our government, as it was there. On the other hand, this is a new phenomenon for Americans who have, until now, been spared these specific systematic cruelties, hurled from official positions. Now, in a time that could be a turning point, we need to school ourselves to understand and resist techniques that Trump instinctively grasps, but most Americans may not. In this strange new world of unrecognizable features, societal slides can happen rapidly, facilitated by naivety born of inexperience and denial. It took days to reduce the Wilson Center from an internationally respected think-tank that reveled in its independence and intellectual leadership to a smoldering wreck, soon to be nonexistent. The pace of repeated indignities meant that, within days of April 1, new outrages relegated the Wilson Center putsch to obscurity. As we write, public attention has moved on. In this reality, what is at first unthinkable soon becomes routine. The struggles of the Polish people also offer an alternative of resistance and hope. What Poles sought from the Solidarity movement that coalesced in 1980 and set the stage for the new democracy that began to emerge in 1989 was, first among others, dignity — the antithesis of humiliation. The Poles had to dig themselves out of a deeper hole than is currently our challenge; first the Nazi, and then the Communist regime supported by a powerful, armed neighbor. Even so, they took to the streets. They pursued every possible means of peaceful opposition to confront oppression. At this momentous historical juncture, our assignment as Americans is to find ways to turn our humiliation into action, to reclaim our dignity. Ruth Greenspan Bell, according to her dismissal letter, is, until May 31, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Janine R. Wedel, a social anthropologist in the Schar School at George Mason University, is the author of 'The Private Poland' and 'UNACCOUNTABLE: How the Establishment Corrupted Our Finances, Freedom, and Politics and Created an Outsider Class.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
25-04-2025
- Boston Globe
Skateboarding cop goes viral, a dad joke backfires, and a resident makes an unusual animal complaint
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Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Yahoo
'The Real April Fool's Day Is April 15th,' Says Peter Schiff, Quoting His Tax-Resisting Father On How The IRS Duped America
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