Brixton shooting: Tributes to takeaway delivery driver who died after gunshots were fired
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Tributes have been paid to takeaway delivery driver who died along with another man after gunshots were fired in south London.
The young driver, named locally as Guilherme Messias da Silva, 21, was killed in Railton Road, Brixton shortly before 8pm on Sunday after locals heard shots ring out and vehicles crashing.
The driver was believed to have been knocked off his moped by one of two cars that had been chasing each other and exchanging gunfire.
A Deliveroo driver working near the scene on Monday said he knew Messias da Silva, who had been making his last delivery of the day when he died.
Paulo Silva, 42, described him as a “good boy” and “young” and said he had been planning to return to Brazil in December.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan tweeted: “The details of this tragic incident are deeply distressing & I am utterly heartbroken for the families and friends of those impacted."
He urged people to come forward with any information.
The Metropolitan Police have not yet confirmed the identities of those who died, but said one man had died in a crash while another was fatally shot.
Detectives believe two cars were driving in the Railton Road area when one of the cars hit a moped, Scotland Yard said.
The rider of the moped died as a result of his injuries.
A man from the car involved in the collision got out of the vehicle and was pursued by a male, armed with a firearm, from the second car.
The fleeing male was shot and he died at the scene, police said, while the gunman fled the scene.
Firearms officers attended the incident along with the London Ambulance Service and Air Ambulance but both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
Post-mortem examinations will be held in due course, Scotland Yard said.
White forensic tents had been put up at the scene on Monday, where debris could be seen strewn across the road.
There were two crashed vehicles – a silver car which had lost one of its tyres and a moped.
A 322 bus was left parked within the police cordon.
A local woman whose daughter was outside shortly before the shots were fired called for more police presence on the streets.
"I'm feeling weird because it's close to your doorstep," Janet White told ITV News.
Brixton resident Janet White says more police officers are needed on the streets
"My daughter came out just before it happened [the gunshots] she was at the shop, then she came in and we heard the shots."
"There used to be bobbies on the beat," she said. "The cuts don't help. Normally they would be round here - there were a lot of policemen around here there's none anymore."
Chief Superintendent Colin Wingrove said: “I am shocked and saddened by this incident.
“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the two young men who have tragically lost their lives. This incident will cause a great deal of concern throughout the local community and across London.
“We are supporting specialist crime detectives, who are working at pace to confirm the specific sequence of events and identify and arrest those responsible.
“Local officers are on the scene and patrolling the local area to speak to local residents, seek witnesses and provide visible reassurance. I would urge anyone with any information however small to come forward to help bring whoever is responsible to justice.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police via 101 quoting reference CAD 6166/30Oct.
Latest round of violent shootings in the capital
The Brixton shootings mean four people have been killed in two separate shooting incidents in just five days in London.
An incident in Ilford, east London, on Tuesday left two men dead and a third injured.
This follows a spate of shootings in July that saw three men die in separate attacks in six days.
Before those killings, up until 19 July this year, there had been no firearms deaths in the English capital since 31 October 2021.
In the whole of 2021, there were 12 fatal shootings among a total of 134 homicides recorded by the Metropolitan Police.
In April the force said it had seen a reduction in gun crime, with the number of all shootings, including fatal and non-fatal, down from 283 in 2019/20 to 196 in 2021/22.
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