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Jury hears of motive for Leeds shotgun killing
The fiancee of a man who was shot and killed in a Leeds street told a murder trial her partner had planned to speak with the man who fired the fatal shot over claims he had beaten up his cousin.
Chantelle Carr-Dixon said she believed her partner Gavin Clarke would have “smacked” Afzal Arif for harming his cousin Hope Gatewood.
Mr Clarke, 34, died four days after being shot in the face by Arif in Savile Avenue, Chapeltown, Leeds, on August 8 last year. Arif claims he only intended to scare Mr Clarke.
A trial at Leeds Crown Court heard Arif had fathered a child with Miss Gatewood and told Mr Clarke that he had been beating her up.
Prosecutor Paul Greaney asked Ms Carr-Dixon: “When Gavin said he would speak to this boyfriend, what do you think he meant. She replied: “I think Gavin would have smacked him because he was beating up his cousin.”
She also told the court about an incident earlier in the summer when she had been in a car with Mr Clarke on Spencer Place and he had shouted out of the window to Arif, saying he wanted to speak to him.
Arif, 23, of Elford Grove, Harehills, is on trial for murder alongside Sohail Mahmood, 23, of Savile Road, Chapeltown, who is alleged to have helped by acting as a “scout” by identifying Mr Clarke on the night of the attack, Both men deny the charge.
The shooting took place moments after Mr Clarke had been fitness training in Savile Park.
Ms Carr-Dixon said she heard of the shooting after a phone call from her eldest daughter.
She said: “She phoned to say someone had shot Gavin. I told her to shut up and stop being silly.
“I called Gavin’s phone but he did not answer. A friend called Monty answered the phone. I told him to put Gavin on the phone and he told me that Gavin had been shot.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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