Liverpool rocked by spate of murders as police hunt ‘cowardly’ killer of nine-year-old schoolgirl

Liverpool awoke on Tuesday morning to the shocking news that nine-year-old schoolgirl Olivia Pratt-Korbel had been shot dead at her home in Dovecot.

Her mum, Cheryl Korbel, and a man were also shot and injured when a gunman opened fire in the property on Kingsheath Avenue at around 10pm on Monday night.

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.

Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims described the shooting as a ‘truly shocking incident’ and said the gunman was a ‘cowardly individual who does not deserve to be walking the streets’.

Detectives say they are aware of a culture of sometimes ‘not grassing’ to police in the city but have urged anyone with information to come forward as soon as possible.

Spate of killings in Liverpool

The tragic news of the schoolgirl’s death 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.

Ms Dale’s younger brother, Lewis Dunne, 16, was also shot dead in Liverpool in 2015 by a gang who mistook his identity - although the deaths are not believed to be connected.

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.

Sam Rimmer, from Bootle, was gunned down on Lavrock Bank at around 11.40pm and died in hospital after being given CPR by emergency services on the scene.

Tuesday’s shocking killing in Knotty Ash is the latest in a series of high-profile cases in Liverpool where children have been killed with guns or knives.

On the same day as the schoolgirl’s death, the city marked the 15th anniversary of the killing of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, who was mistakenly shot by a gang member in Croxteth on August 22, 2007.

Just last month, a teenage boy was jailed for the murder of 12-year-old Ava White, who was stabbed to death in Liverpool city centre following a row over a Snapchat video last November.

‘Senseless murders’

Reacting to the latest killing, Liverpool Wavertree Labour MP Paula Barker told BBC Breakfast: "It is obviously devastating and it comes 15 years to the day after Rhys Jones was senselessly murdered on the streets of our city as well. It is completely unacceptable and this mindless violence simply has to stop.

"I think, as a city, we come together in adversity and I know people in Liverpool will be absolutely horrified this morning."

Ms Barker added that it took "so many years" to get justice for Rhys and urged anyone with information to contact Merseyside Police either anonymously or otherwise.

"We cannot allow that to happen to the family of this little girl," she said.