A five-year-old boy was shot dead yesterday as he fled from a gunman with his stepfather in Bolton, Greater Manchester. Police last night confirmed that the death of Dylan Hull could be drugs-related and described the brutal street assassination as a "vicious, cowardly crime".
The gunman, wearing a motorcycle helmet, is thought to have shot Dylan twice in the head and left his stepfather, Mr John Bates (28), with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
The man leading the hunt for the killer, Det Supt Peter Ellis, told reporters at the scene last night: "It is very, very difficult to describe anybody who is prepared to shoot fatally a five-year-old boy. It is a tragic loss of life."
A woman who was first on the scene, Ms Mary Cooper (59), said she heard shots and rushed out of her house to nearby Bankfield Street and saw a man whom she believed was the boy's stepfather standing over his son, who had two bullet wounds to the back of the head.
"The stepfather was hysterical in the middle of the road. He went to pick the little boy up but I stopped him," said Ms Cooper.
"Then another lady brought bedding and clothing and I put him in the recovery position and did the best I could.
"The stepfather was shouting `For God's sake, somebody help me. Not my son, not my son.' "
At that point, Mrs Cooper said, the little boy was still alive.
"I put my hand to his face but he died as the ambulance pulled up," she said.
"Apparently the first shot was fired at the father, but the next two hit the little boy," she added.
Det Supt Ellis told reporters he did not know what the motive for the attack was, but added: "There is a line of inquiry which could suggest that the killing may surround drug activity."
He said it was difficult to know at this stage whether the little boy had been shot deliberately.
He added: "It is quite possible he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He may not have been the intended victim, which may have been Mr Bates."
Det Supt Ellis said when Mr Bates and Dylan entered an alleyway, apparently on their way to a nearby shop, they were confronted by the man, who produced what he believed to be a handgun.
Mr Bates took hold of Dylan and turned to flee and was then shot. Dylan's distraught mother, June, was being comforted by friends and neighbours last night.
As local people struggled to come to terms with the tragedy, some said drugs gangs had been locked in a turf war in the area. According to neighbours the house where Dylan lived with Mr Bates and his mother June, in nearby Jauncy Street, had come under attack the previous night when a ground floor window had been smashed, possibly by a bullet.
A neighbour, Mr Mohsin Miah (17), said he heard three cracks from a gunshot and heard a man screaming.
"I looked over and the little boy was lying on the floor near a car," he said. "His body was jerking and his dad was stood over him. He was also shot. It was chaos.
"The gunman had got out of a Metro car wearing a motorcycle helmet and fired three times.
"Then he ran down the alleyway opposite. He threw the helmet to the ground as he ran away."
Local newsagent Mr Solly Limbada said he had heard that Dylan was killed when he tried to stop the gunman shooting his father.
Mr Limbada added: "He often came in for sweets and usually had £5 notes. He also went to school in a taxi, which was strange as Pikes Lane school is only round the corner."
The gunman was believed to have arrived at the scene in a yellow Metro hatchback, registered D534 GWW. After the shooting, he fled across nearby Deane Road, which at the time was busy with commuter traffic.