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Terrified workers hid during Leeds takeaway killing
TWO fast food workers described the moment they hid in a store room when a customer was shot and killed in their take-away by balaclava-clad gunmen.
Yakub Sidat and Bostan Ali told a jury how they locked themselves in a pantry at the Leeds take-away and listened as gunshots were fired. The pair then waited between five and ten minutes before coming out and finding Rohan Ricketts close to death on the floor.
Mr Ricketts, 34, died from a gunshot wound to his chest, was stabbed in the neck and smashed over the head with a frying pan at the Shahjahan on Roundhay Road, Harehills, on April 20 last year.
Mr Sidat told Sheffield Crown Court how Jamaican-born Mr Ricketts, from Harehills, was leaving the shop with chicken and chips when he was forced to turn and run back inside as shots were fired.
Mr Sidat and Mr Ali managed to get inside the storeroom and lock it as more shots were fired. They were unable to raise the alarm until they got out of the storeroom.
Mr Sidat said: "I just saw the guy was still alive and then telephoned the police."
But the court heard how Mr Ricketts was dead by the time the first police officer on the scene, PC Michael Hussey arrived just minutes later.
Michael Rungen, 33, of Weston Drive, Otley, is on trial for murder.
He also denies two charges of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, two charges of using a prohibited weapon and one of possession of ammunition. The prosecution claims Rungen played a key role in the killing by acting as the driver.
A hired car caught on CCTV shortly before the 11.30pm incident was traced to him. It had been leased using his parents' address in Markham Avenue, Leeds. A search of those premises also uncovered ammunition of the same calibre as that used in the shooting.
Mr Ricketts had been visiting the home of his ex-partner Carol Harvey when he went out to buy food at the take-away.
A statement read to the court on behalf of Mrs Harvey's daughter Lavinia said: "I have heard a gun go off before in a nightclub when someone was shot. It sounded like that."
Mother and daughter went upstairs to look out of a bedroom window and then her mother went out into the street to investigate and found that Mr Ricketts had been shot.
No other men have ever been traced in connection with the killing and the motive is still unclear.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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