Carl Campbell: 'Smiling' men seen in 4X4 after shooting
Two men were seen smiling in a 4x4 just minutes after it was involved in a fatal ambush, a court heard.
Carl Campbell, 33, was murdered in West Bromwich on December 27 last year.
A Ford Fiesta he was in with two friends was shot at five times and Mr Campbell was hit in the face and killed almost instantly.
Mohammed Humza, 20, has admitted murdering Mr Campbell, from Wolverhampton, after shooting at him from an Audi Q5, which pulled up alongside the Fiesta in Dartmouth Street.
Birmingham Crown Court heard previously how the stolen Audi, which had false number plates, was later found abandoned in Kiniths Crescent in West Bromwich.
People living in the ‘quiet residential’ road saw the 4x4 in the wake of the shooting at 2.30pm.
Crescent resident Nigel Slater told the court he heard the ‘expensive’ Audi Q Series race into the street. From a side-on view 20ft away he saw two men in the front of the car but could not see into the back seats because of its tinted windows.
He said: “I heard the engine of a car accelerating down the crescent and obviously it was coming at some speed.
“The vehicle pulled up pretty much in line with me in [in the centre of the road].
“I saw two people inside the vehicle at the front. They were both of Asian appearance.
“The passenger appeared to be in his late teens to early 20s and the driver appeared to be a little bit older – probably in his early to mid-20s.
“They seemed to be in a good mood, fairly happy and were talking to each other in a jovial manner. They were smiling.”
He said the car then turned around and headed out of the cul-de-sac.
Julie Baker was looking out of her bedroom window at ‘about 2.30pm’ when she saw a 4x4 drive into the crescent.
She said: “My street is a quiet residential street so the speed of that vehicle alarmed me.
“As the vehicle stopped with its front end facing me I saw the occupants through the front windscreen...they were two Asian males.”
Vikesh Chauhan, 24, who is alleged to have been driving the Audi, and Jaspal Rai, 25, accused of being in the car at the time, deny murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Humza, Chauhan and Rai are all of no fixed abode. The trial continues.
