Gang shoot woman in leg

Humfrey Hunter12 April 2012

A mother who was shot in the leg in front of her 12-year-old son was attacked after confronting three rowdy young men in a supermarket, it emerged today.

The woman had been queueing in Safeway on the King's Road in Chelsea when she was pushed from behind by the three. After she remonstrated with them the group were thrown out of the store. But they waited for the unnamed woman and her son, followed them to their car in Cadogan Gardens and mugged and shot the woman.

The gunman ordered the woman to hand over two rings, but she threw them under a parked car. Only one was subsequently found.

The attack last Saturday at 5pm, which Scotland Yard said could easily have been fatal, was interrupted by the ex-wife of former Tory chancellor Norman Lamont. Rosemary Lamont, 54, challenged the gunman as he tried to take the woman's jewellery.

Police praised her, saying: "She was very brave. To witness a shooting and to then tackle the gunman showed tremendous courage."

Melanie Sturgeon, who was sitting in Cadogan Gardens with her husband and young son at the time of the attack, said: "We were in the garden when we heard the shot, which sounded like an air pistol. The boy shouted 'I knew you were going to do that' and then I saw someone running off down the road."

Safeway store manager Aklisor Rahman said: "The woman was queueing up and the kids were being rowdy. She just turned round and told them not to do it. One of my colleagues dealt with it and it seemed to be finished.

"But the next thing we knew the police came and wanted our CCTV to see if there was anything on it. We didn't recognise the attackers, there were a lot of people about that day."

The suspect is described as 6ft, black, aged in his late twenties or early thirties, with a distinctive "protruding" nose. The 12-year-old was not injured during the incident.

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