CCTV of drugs factory ‘crossbow murders’ shown to jury

A jury has been shown CCTV footage of a struggle during which a drug gang member is alleged to have accidentally shot and killed his brother with a crossbow.

Saghawat Ramzan, 47, is accused of shooting his younger brother Waseem Ramzan moments before he reloaded the “horrific” crossbow to kill another man fleeing an attempted raid on a cannabis farm.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was shown images of members of a rival gang “retreating” from the attempted heist through a broken front window.

Saghawat Ramzan is alleged to have been aiming at teenager Khuzaimah Douglas, who was being punched in the street, when he hit and killed Waseem Ramzan.

Ramzan, his son Omar Ramzan and Mohammed Sageer all deny murdering Waseem Ramzan, 36, and 19-year-old Mr Douglas during their “violent defence” of the cannabis factory.

The trio are accused of murdering both victims in the early hours of February 20 last year in Pensnett Road, Brierley Hill, West Midlands.

Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecutor Adrian Keeling QC said Saghawat and Omar Ramzan, 24, lived on Pensnett Road in a house next door to a property being used to grow cannabis worth up to £225,000 a year.

Sageer, 33, of Gorsty Avenue, Brierley Hill, is alleged to have driven to Pensnett Road to join efforts to protect the drug-growing operation with an “ugly” armoury of weapons including a sword and two crossbows.

On the second day of the trial, Mr Keeling took the jury through CCTV images showing a crossbow being fired towards raiders at the rear of the house in the early hours.

He also highlighted footage of “the flight of what appears to be a rock or a house brick… coming out of the front window and landing in the front garden.”

A Vietnamese “gardener” and his girlfriend were also seen on CCTV making their way away from the illegal grow, the court heard.

Before images of the struggle, which happened near a tree at the side of Pensnett Road, were shown to the jury, Mr Keeling said Omar Ramzan was “using his fists” while his father held the crossbow.

Addressing Sageer’s alleged role, the barrister said of the images recorded from a camera on a nearby property: “You can make him out arriving in the top left hand corner… making kicking motions towards the group on the ground.”

Mr Keeling told the court Waseem Ramzan’s legs could be seen rising, as he rolled to the side, fatally injured.

He said of the second bolt fired at Mr Douglas, who managed to stagger away but died nearby: “It’s uncertain from the CCTV precisely when that happened, when he was hit by that (the second bolt).

“What the prosecution says is important is that that attack on Mr Douglas continued despite the earlier fatal injury just a moment before.”

After the CCTV was shown, the crossbow, wrapped in plastic sheeting, was shown to the jury panel by an usher, along with a “formidable” bolt and a sword recovered by police.

Explaining that the bolt had caused a 24cm-deep wound to the second victim and damaged his liver, kidney and pancreas, Mr Keeling said: “Mr Douglas was able to stagger across the road and across the pathway.

“He was horribly and fatally injured. The police had been called by other people. When they came he was still alive but dying.

“Doctors came very quickly and treated him but despite their best efforts he died on the pavement. He was only 19 years old.”

The trial continues.