Twin brother of man gunned down in New Year shooting had ‘gut feeling' that he had been killed
Thursday, 4th October 2012
Aaron McKoy was out celebrating with his brother when he was chased and shot dead in Holborn
Published: 4 October, 2012
by ALICE HUTTON
THE brother of a man gunned down while celebrating his birthday has told the Old Bailey of having a “gut feeling” that his twin had died after repeatedly ringing his phone without an answer.
Aaron McKoy was chased, beaten on the ground and then shot dead in the early hours of New Year’s Day after a night out at a club in Holborn with his brother Lee was interrupted by warring gangs from Hackney, the court was told this week.
Lee McKoy, 21, told the court on Monday how he circled the streets in a car searching for his brother after hearing a gunshot only to discover Aaron was lying dead on the street with tape and police “everywhere”.
Six men have been charged with his murder. Dean Smith, 26, of Lordship Road, Stoke Newington, is accused of pulling the trigger. On trial alongside him are Ceon Hewitt, 22, and Jack Nichols, 21, both of High Street, Wickford, Osman Mohammed, 23, of Homerton Road, Hackney, Smith’s cousin Perrie Dennis, 22, of Thornbury Close, Newington Green, and Daniel Oyetoro, 27, of Charlbury Crescent, Romford.
The court heard how it was only by chance that the McKoy brothers, along with two girls, ended up at the Clerkenwell House Wine Bar, in Hatton Wall on January 1 – their birthday – after several parties in Dalston and Archway fell through.
Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, showed the jury CCTV footage of the group arriving around 2am and meeting Ricky Walkington, a friend of Aaron’s, before entering the club.
Two hours later Mr Walkington was stabbed in the leg as gang rival tensions allegedly erupted- causing the Wine Bar to be emptied, with crowds spilling out into the streets, the court heard.
Lee McKoy, of Hackney, spoke so quietly he had to be repeatedly asked by Judge Wendy Joseph to raise his voice.
He said: “It felt like everyone was gasping for air and everyone went to leave.
"As I got out [Aaron] was across the road with the two girls. Later I heard a bang. I automatically thought it was a gunshot. I knew that there was danger but I didn’t know what kind. So I ran off towards Leather Lane.”
Having got into a friend’s car he continued: “I tried to ring my brother and the girls he was with but their phones just rang out. I got to about Angel when I got a phone call saying someone had been shot.
"I turned round and went back. When I turned up it was taped up and police were everywhere. I wasn’t too sure, but because I could not get through to my brother I had a gut feeling that it was [Aaron].”
Mr Jafferjee asked him: “Did you [then] discover he was dead?” Lee McKoy replied: “Yeah.”
PC Gary Collins, an expert in Hackney gangs, told the court that members of known groups had allegedly been present at the Clerkenwell Wine Bar on the night. The officer said that the Lordship Boys or LORD (Live or Die) were “friends” with the London Fields Boys, who are “one of the biggest gangs in Hackney.”
But he added that both are “rivals” with the Holly Street Boys, named after a road in Dalston where both Lee and Aaron McKoy had lived between 2004 and 2006.
Lee McKoy denied there had been problems between the gangs in the club and claimed that the Holly Street Boys were not a gang and were just friends who “played football together.”
In a statement taken by police in January that was read out to the court he said he had no clue how the night would end: “I didn’t feel any tension in the club and it seemed like everyone was having a fun New Year.”
The trial continues.
