Two men sentenced to life in prison over killing of father-of-four in Dudley drive-by shooting
Two men have been sentenced to a minimum of 30 years each in jail over the killing of a father-of-four in a drive-by shooting in Dudley.
West Midlands Police say they viewed thousands of hours of CCTV, used forensics, scoured social media and phone records to connect Hassan Tasleem and Gurdeep Sandhu to the planned killing.
Mohammed Haroon Zeb, 39, was shot in the head in Queens Cross at just after 12:30am on 31 January 2021, as the culmination of a feud between two families.
The taxi firm manager, known as Haroon, had only just pulled up outside his home when it happened.
He died in hospital from his injuries later that day.
Police say the fatal blow came from a revolver, and was one of a number of shots fired by a passenger of a Volkswagen Golf, which then drove off.
The weapon is still to be recovered.
Detectives carried out extensive inquiries and found that the gun was in the hands of Hassan Tasleem, while Gurdeep Sandhu was the driver of the car and involved in the plot.
The vehicle was also found to have false plates and went off the radar until it was later recovered in Telford.
The killing was part of an ongoing feud between families dating back to at least 2018, which saw men being mown down by cars, and in another incident, a man stabbed to death.
A man was jailed over that murder in 2019.
Police say Mr Zeb was not believed to have been actively involved in the feud, but a follower of what was going on, and the reason he was specifically targeted remains unknown.
Tasleem, 25, of Richmond Road, Dudley, and Sandhu, 25, of Blowers Green Road, Dudley, were convicted of murder, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and perverting the course of justice following a three-month trial at Loughborough Crown Court.
Hassan Tasleem and Gurdeep Sandhu were both sentenced to life imprisonment - to serve a minimum of 30 years each on Thursday 16 February.
Shamraz Ali was jailed for five years.