Posted by
enjoylv8 on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:21:51 AM
It began with a scuffle in a snooker hall. By all accounts, the
altercation at the Manor Club in Haringey, north London, last January
was over nothing in particular, a respect issue between two "mid-level"
members of two of the capital's most violent Turkish gangs.
Losing respect in gangland Britain these days is, say police,
sufficient to ignite long-running feuds. When you lose face in a
stand-off between the Bombacilar and the Tottenham
pearl jewelry Boys, north London's most prominent and feared Turkish crews, the fallout can be fatal.
In the following weeks tensions grew, finally erupting on 22 March as
Holloway shopkeeper Ahmet Paytak, 50, locked up his grocery store after
another slow Sunday. A motorbike, an unusual red and black Benelli TNT,
mounted the pavement outside. Its pillion passenger took aim; the
assassin couldn't miss. Paytak was murdered in the doorway of Euro Wine
and Food at 10.40pm. Moments later his 21-year-old son was shot in the
leg as he turned
sterling silver jewelry to face the killer. The gunman has never been found,
despite a £20,000 reward and the almost immediate realisation that the
wrong man had been killed. Paytak was innocent, a "case of mistaken
identity", according to murder squad officers.
But the blunder failed to stem the bloodshed. Quite the opposite.
Shootings between the Bombacilar and the Tottenham Boys increased. "The
levels of violence have been shocking, and the number of shootings there, in London terms, is very high," said Metropolitan police commander Steve Kavanagh.
Three weeks ago the feud's most audacious killing took place. Oktay
Erbasli, a prominent member of the Tottenham Boys, was waiting at
traffic lights at a busy junction in his Range Rover when a motorcycle
pulled alongside. A hitman linked to the
freshwater pearl beads Bombacilar gang opened fire,
killing the 23-year-old, but missing his five-year-old stepson seated
beside him. Within the tit-for-tat mentality of gangland retribution,
reprisals are inevitable. In Erbasli's case it came within 72 hours:
Cem Duzgun, 21, had been playing snooker in a Clapton social club with
friends when two hooded men approached at 10.50pm and opened fir