Two men were on Tuesday, 14 May, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a 22-year-old man Hashim Abdalla Ali.
Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Philip Babatunde Fashakin and Juskiran Sidhu, were found guilty of murdering Ali in Hillingdon last October. They will serve a minimum of 30 years.
The court heard that on 11 October 2018, Mr Ali was the passenger in a black Mercedes being driven by his friend.
At around 14:30hrs, the car had just pulled up on Central Avenue, Hayes when Fashakin and Sidhu approached and discharged a firearm towards the passenger side of the vehicle, striking Mr Ali.
Following the shooting, the driver of the car drove off in an attempt to get Mr Ali to hospital, during which time it collided with a number of stationary cars on West Drayton Road.
A passing ambulance stopped to provide assistance but despite their best efforts Mr Ali was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives from the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command began an investigation including gathering CCTV and mobile phone evidence from the days leading up to and on the day of the murder.
CCTV from 9 October showed Fashakin hiring a dark grey Volkswagen Golf from a depot in Reading.The same car was captured arriving in Central Avenue on the day of the murder and again leaving the location just one minute after the shooting is believed to have occurred.
Later that afternoon, the pair were caught on CCTV at a shopping centre where they purchased new clothes and dumped the clothing they had been wearing in a bin outside the shop. They also bought new sim cards and disposed of their old numbers.
On 30 October, officers arrested Sidhu in a hotel in Birmingham, where he was using a false name.
Fashakin was also arrested at a different location in Birmingham just a week later.
Both denied the murder and were remanded into custody.
Detective Chief Inspector Garry Moncrieff , who led the investigation, said: “Fashakin and Sidhu carried out a brutal attack which led to a young man losing his life at the side of the road.
“They will now have a significant amount of time in which to reflect on their actions and we hope these lengthy sentences bring some kind of closure for Mr Ali’s family.”
