Police investigating the shooting of a girl aged five have tonight charged a 19-year-old man with two counts of attempted murder.
Anthony McCalla was detained in South London yesterday following the shooting on Tuesday in which Thusha Kamaleswaran and another innocent bystander were caught in the crossfire of an attack inside a shop.
Detectives also revealed that a 14-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The development comes after a teenager targeted by the suspected gunmen came out of hiding to help detectives find the suspected attackers.
Thusha’s three-year-old sister and 12-year-old brother saw her being shot in the chest. A £50,000 reward was offered for the capture of those responsible for the shooting in a shop in Stockwell, South London, in which Thusha’s shopkeeper uncle was also critically wounded.
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Meanwhile Thusha, who is described as a “chatty and cheerful” child, opened her eyes for the first time since the shooting. Her family said that they were praying for her full recovery. Her mother, Sharmila, and father, Sassi, who are both Sri Lankan, were at her bedside at King’s College Hospital, Camberwell. She and Roshan Selvakumar, 35, who was shot in the face, were said to be in a critical but stable condition.
The three children and their mother were visiting Mr Selvakumar’s shop, Stockwell Food & Wine, when they were caught in the attack. Two youths had run into the shop as three hooded teenagers on bikes pursued them.
CCTV footage showed one of the suspected attackers throw down his bike and lean into the shop before opening fire, hitting Thusha and her uncle.
One of the youths inside the shop was said to have boasted later that he had dodged bullets. A shop worker, who did not want to be named, said: “He told me, ‘I was shot at before’. We always see them hanging around.”
Last night extra police — including officers from the Territorial Support Group, a police unit specialising in public order containment — were deployed amid fears that revenge attacks could take place in Brixton or Stockwell.
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Detective Chief Inspector Tony Broughton said: “One of the youths who first ran into the shop has come forward to police and is assisting us. He is a young man, under 20. He has given his account of running into the shop and taking cover. We are trying to trace the other individual and appeal to him to come forward.”
Gail Brannan, the head teacher of Fairlop Primary School in Ilford, which Thusha attends, said: “We hope that she makes a full recovery soon.”