Mother describes moment five-year-old Thusha Kamaleswaran was shot

The mother of five-year-old Thusha Kamaleswaran has described the moment she saw her daughter shot in a shop in London, seeing her collapse "as though her legs were going to give up on her" [9 February 2012].

The five-year-old was shot in crossfire in Stockwell Food and Wine shop - which her uncle owned - in south London on 29 March 2011.

A man, aged 35, was also shot during the incident.

The trial at the Old Bailey heard Thusha's mother's account of the events.

At the time of the incident she was talking to relatives in a room behind the shop when she heard bottles being broken inside the shop. The court heard how the mother-of-three ran into the shop after her children.

She said: "In order to protect my children I also ran into the shop.

"There I saw Thusha was about to fall down as though her legs were going to give up on her, though I was able to grab her and stop her from falling."

Eyewitness account

An eye witness also told the jury of the moment the men ran into the shop and he noticed one was carrying a gun: "At that point I'd slowed down. I think he was quite close, about 10 to 15 metres (33ft-50ft) away, and it gets a little hazy.

"I think I heard some shots, at the same time I started turning around and started retracing my steps."

He said after the shots were fired - which sounded "like a firecracker going off" - he saw a man in a blue hooded top coming out of the shop holding one side of his abdomen.

He told the court that a second man then said: "I hope that was a gun."

"He seemed almost excited at the prospect that that was what had happened.

"I saw a man being chased and then they followed him.

"The impression I had was that there was perhaps a feud going on between these two sets of people and it had just reached an escalation."

Three defendants deny grevious bodily harm. The trial continues.

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