Four men jailed for total of 113 years over fatal drive-by shooting

Four men have been jailed for a total of at least 113 years over a shocking drive-by shooting in Birmingham that left a 20-year-old man dead.

Dante Mullings was fatally shot as he sat in a parked car on St Vincent Street West in Birmingham at 5pm on May 7, 2019.

Chilling CCTV captured the moment a gunman leant out of the window of a passing VW Passat, firing at least eight shots at the vehicle.

Mullings was shot three times including in the lower back although he managed to flee the car injured.

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He then jumped some nearby roadside barriers before collapsing on the ground. He later died in hospital.

Two other passengers also suffered gunshot wounds but survived the attack.

Dior Jackson, 20, Ihsaan Bernard, 21, Omarni Bernard-Sewell, 21, and Ayuub Mahmood, 19, denied charges of conspiring to murder and possessing a gun with intent to endanger life.

But all four men were found guilty of the charges at Birmingham Crown Court on February 4.

They were all sentenced to life terms in prison on Friday.

The court heard how after the revenge attack, the Passat, which was stolen and displaying cloned number plates, was found on fire in Nechells, later that night.

Bernard and Bernard-Sewell - both prominent Birmingham gang members - planned the killing as revenge for a serious stabbing less than 24 hours earlier that left a friend critically ill in hospital.

Detectives searched CCTV to track the Passat at various points throughout the day including the area of Hockley, Birmingham, immediately after the murder.

Footage shows Jackson walk from the direction of the Passat into a block of flats wearing a grey hoody and re-emerge minutes later having changed tops.

Further CCTV and phone enquiries implicated Bernard and Bernard-Sewell.

Detectives discovered Mahmood contacted Hockley Car Spares on the day of the murder.

He then collected the Passat’s cloned number plates from the business at 2.20pm.

Police raided the site on July 3 and recovered a machete, cloned number plates and laptop software used to create registration plates.

Bernard-Sewell, was arrested from his home in Selly Oak, Birmingham on July 16.

Police bodycam captured the moment Bernard, of Kingstanding, Birmingham, was arrested at Birmingham Airport as he arrived from Amsterdam.

Jackson, of Great Barr, Birmingham, surrendered the following day and Mahmood, from Lozells, Birmingham, was arrested during a dawn raid on August 7.

The murder weapon - a 9mm self-loading pistol was found in a bag hidden in bushes in Leicester on November 4, 2019.

It was examined by ballistics experts and shown to have fired the rounds that killed Mr Mullings - and was also linked to four other firearms discharges in Birmingham.

Detective Inspector Hannah Whitehouse, of West Midlands Police, said: “The shooting was prompted by a stabbing the previous day.

“The defendants were all friends or associates of the victim and made a pact to exact revenge.

“However, neither Dante Mullings nor the other two men in the car were involved in the knife attack.

“We don’t think they were specifically targeted but that the defendants drove around Ladywood searching for anyone associated to the group.

“Unfortunately for Dante, they came across him and his friends first.

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“We know Dior Jackson was in the VW Passat at the time alongside another man.“We weren’t able to prove who pulled the trigger - but we were able to show this group plotted together to carry out the shooting. And therefore they were jointly liable.”

The minimum period they will spend behind bars was set at: Jackson - 29 years Bernard - 29 years Bernard-Sewell - 29 years Mahmoud - 26 years A 16-year-old boy was also charged with conspiracy to murder and is set to stand trial on May 17.

Two other men Mohammed Qadir, 20, and 26-year-old Wasim Hussain were both cleared by a jury of involvement in the murder plot.

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