Big local story. Hackney is only across the river from us. It's a bit of a shithole, and a place I never go to unarmed.
Via the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/23/east-london-shooting-death-schoolgirl-named-shereka-marshA 15-year-old girl shot dead in a house in Hackney, east London, on Saturday afternoon has been named as Shereka Fab-Ann Marsh.
Three boys, one aged 15, and two aged 16, were being held in a nearby police station after they were arrested on suspicion of murder near the scene of the fatal shooting on Eastway, close to the Olympic Park. The 15-year-old was charged with murder late on Sunday night.
Police sources said one line of investigation was that the shooting may have been an accident. Scotland Yard said "enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances of the incident". A post-mortem examination at Poplar mortuary on Sunday revealed Shereka died from a gunshot wound to her neck.
Friends gathered close to the terraced house where the incident took place and laid flowers while forensic crime officers continued their investigation behind a cordon. Some friends told reporters that Shereka, a pupil at Urswick School, a Church of England secondary in Hackney, had gone round to the home of one of the arrested boys with a pair of trainers as a present for his 15th birthday. "Shereka only went to drop off his birthday present, and somehow she got shot," one said. "Nobody knows how yet. It's awful."
Another friend said: "I don't know why there was a gun there when [he] was celebrating his 15th birthday, but this is Hackney."
Ambulances were called shortly before 4pm on Saturday, but Shereka was pronounced dead at the scene. Police confirmed the house was not her home and a firearm had been recovered from it.
More at link.
