‘In your own house, it makes you scared’ - residents react as schoolgirl, 9, shot and killed in Liverpool

Local residents say they have been left scared in their own homes after a gunman entered a property in Knotty Ash and shot dead a nine-year-old girl on Monday night.

A man and woman were also injured in the attack at the house on Kingsheath Avenue and are recovering in hospital from gunshot wounds.

Merseyside Police have launched a murder investigation and there is a large police presence in the area with an extensive cordon in place. Sniffer dogs and forensic teams are on the scene.

Residents have been left stunned by the shooting but have vowed to come together and help each other despite being frightened by the events.

“Horrific. It doesn’t happen here. There are no gangs,” two sisters in their 60s told LiverpoolWorld.

“In your own house, it makes you scared. It makes you want to barricade the door.”

However, the two sisters, who live in the road adjacent to where the shooting took place, said locals would rally round and support one another.

“We don’t have a bad community, we all look out for each other. We all help each other. We come together when we need to.”

Recalling the incident on Monday night, one sister said: “I saw blue lights and didn’t know what had happened. I looked out and saw the police.

“I wouldn’t know what a gunshot sounded like. All I can say is it was like a firework.”

Another concerned resident told the gathered media: “We let our kids play out in the street, it could be any of them.”

The tragic news comes after a spate of killings involving guns and knives on Merseyside.

The same night as the Knotty Ash shootings, two men were arrested over the fatal stabbing of a woman in her 50s in Cherryfield Drive, Kirkby.

In a separate incident, Knowsley Council worker Ashley Dale, 28, died after being shot and killed in the back garden of a house on Leinster Road in Old Swan in the early hours of Sunday.

Meanwhile, police are still searching for two suspects who fled on electric bikes following the fatal shooting of 22-year-old man in Toxteth cul-de-sac on Tuesday, August 16.

“So many shootings, so close together, makes Liverpool look like a bad place to live but it isn’t,” the sisters insisted.

“These things happen everywhere but we get painted as a rough place to live.”