How Black Country cannabis farm raid ended with a double crossbow killing
A cannabis farm growing plants worth up to a quarter of a million pounds was the target of a raid that ended with two people being killed by crossbow bolts.
Khuzaimah Douglas had started the night as a would-be burglar but ended it as a murder victim along with Waseem Ramzan, one of the men alleged to have run the drugs operation who was killed by his own brother.
The raiders arrived at the house in Pensnett Road, Brierley Hill, on the night of February 20 last year but were soon confronted by a family who lived next door - who arrived armed with crossbows, a knife and a knuckleduster.
The raiders became boxed inside the terraced property and smashed their way out of a front window in a bid to escape the Ramzan family.
But while most of the burglars got away, 19-year-old Khuzaimah Douglas was caught – and killed.
Father and son Saghawat Ramzan, 47, and Omar Ramzan, 24, wielded the crossbows.
WATCH CCTV from night of killings:
But it was Saghawat who fired the shots that accidentally killed his 36-year-old brother Waseem and intruder Mr Douglas, a kickboxing star.
Mohammed Sageer, 33, who was a friend of Waseem, was also involved in the action but refused to give evidence at court.
Initially, Saghawat tried to shoot Mr Douglas, fearing the teenager would stab his brother while they grappled on the floor. But he missed his target and instead fatally struck Waseem at point-blank range, on the left side of his abdomen.
Prosecutors said Mr Douglas, from Moseley, was outnumbered by four men to one during the fight.
Despite Waseem being shot, the assault on Mr Douglas continued. The teenager was held down and repeatedly punched.
Saghawat reloaded the crossbow, placing his foot on the weapon and drawing back the string, before standing over Mr Douglas and firing at his hip. The projectile travelled at 270ft-per-second and went 24 inches into his body, causing massive blood loss. Part of the bolt was also left embedded in his bone.
Jurors were told that the type of bolt fired was typically used for hunting, due to it featuring three blades at the tip which are intended to cause heavy bleeding. A weapons expert showed the bloodstained bolt to jurors, alongside the murder weapons.
Saghawat, a self-described "enthusiast of weaponry", owned both of the crossbows which he said he used for target practice.
He said the violence began after being awoken early that morning by noise. He checked his CCTV and saw lots of people wearing balaclavas scaling his garden and the next-door property. The raiders tried to force their way in just after 3.30am.
Saghawat said he feared he was getting robbed and went into "defence mode", claiming to have picked up the crossbow as he felt he "needed to frighten them with something".
At first, Saghawat went into his garden armed with the crossbow – the larger of the two weapons - and fired a bolt into a shed next door. His son Omar followed him into the garden with a knife he took from a kitchen drawer, having been woken up by his father running downstairs.
Omar, who worked as an accountant and was described as a "model student" by a former teacher, recalled seeing what looked like a "specialist" gang including one person seen wearing a head torch.
"They are coming, there are lots of them," Omar's uncle Waseem said, having arrived at the scene after being alerted by his brother Saghawat.
Omar then went back to their home, and took a smaller pistol crossbow from behind a sofa in the lounge. He said he did not know how to fire a crossbow but admitted pointing it at the intruders in order to scare them off.
Meanwhile Sageer drove to the scene in Brierley Hill after receiving a nine-second phone call from Waseem at 3.36am.
Omar also admitted punching Mr Douglas numerous times during the fight.
Both he and Saghawat denied knowing about the cannabis farm despite the property being one of 20 they owned in the area.
Omar and Saghawat lived next door to the drugs factory and Waseem lived further up the road.
After deliberating for nearly 11 hours, a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court returned their verdicts on Thursday afternoon.
Saghawat Ramzan was unanimously found guilty of the murders of his brother Waseem and Mr Douglas.
Saghawat's son Omar Ramzan and family friend Sageer were both found guilty of the murder of Mr Douglas. They were cleared of murdering Waseem Ramzan but convicted of his manslaughter.
All three defendants had denied two counts of murder.
The guilty verdicts have brought the murder investigation to an end. But the case is not over – a separate investigation is ongoing into the burglary of the property.
