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Man guilty of race-hate shootings | Man guilty of race-hate shootings |
(40 minutes later) | |
A gunman who threatened to "kill all black people" has been found guilty of three counts of attempted murder. | A gunman who threatened to "kill all black people" has been found guilty of three counts of attempted murder. |
Former boxer John Laidlaw, 24, went on a shooting spree in Islington, north London, in May 2006. | |
He shot at social worker Abu Kamara in Upper Street before accidentally shooting Emma Sheridan, a white Irish woman at Finsbury Park Tube station. | He shot at social worker Abu Kamara in Upper Street before accidentally shooting Emma Sheridan, a white Irish woman at Finsbury Park Tube station. |
Laidlaw, from Holloway, north London, was also found guilty of two firearms charges during the Old Bailey trial. | Laidlaw, from Holloway, north London, was also found guilty of two firearms charges during the Old Bailey trial. |
Judge Samuel Wiggs warned him that he faced an indeterminate jail sentence for the public's protection. | |
"These offences, certainly the first incident, seem to be almost completely random," he said. | |
Mr Kamara, 44, had been with a group of work friends going for a drink in Islington's Upper Street after a game of badminton. | |
But when a sports bag belonging to one of his colleagues brushed against a friend of Laidlaw's, the gunman reacted by pulling out a gun and shooting him. | But when a sports bag belonging to one of his colleagues brushed against a friend of Laidlaw's, the gunman reacted by pulling out a gun and shooting him. |
The bullet deflected off Mr Kamara's chin and entered his neck through his Adam's apple. | |
It went through his voicebox and damaging nerve endings before finally lodging near his spinal column. | |
Any operation to remove the bullet could leave Mr Kamara paralysed | |
Half an hour after shooting Mr Kamara, Laidlaw shot at a man called Evans Baptiste. | |
Mr Baptiste and a friend had been chasing Laidlaw after recognising him as the man who had attacked Mr Baptiste with a hammer earlier in the year. | |
But the bullet brushed past Mr Baptiste and struck 26-year-old Emma Sheridan. | |
A passing medical student plucked the bullet from her back before ambulance crews took her to hospital for treatment. | |
When police caught up with Laidlaw at the home of a family friend in Kingston, south-west London, he dived through a glass door and ran into a shed to hide. | |
In court, he claimed he was watching television all day during the shootings and was the victim of mistaken identity. |