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Parents Jean and Ivan Ross. ‘I don’t want another mother to suffer like me,’ says Mrs Ross |
I want justice for my son, pleads mother of ‘assassination’ victim
A year on from club shooting, murder detectives urge witnesses to break wall of silence
DETECTIVES hunting the gunman who shot a father-of-two in a King’s Cross club almost a year ago have appealed for witnesses to come forward and break a wall of silence surrounding the killing.
Police are now describing the murder of Daniel Ross, 22, as an assassination-style attack. The killer escaped from Scala nightclub in the early hours of September 24 last year after shooting Mr Ross at point-blank range.
Detective Inspector Peter Holdcroft said this week: “Effectively [Daniel] was assassinated in front of his friends and others in the club. It does appear to be a gang shooting – this isn’t a hitman – the killer will be part of a gang.
“Most of Daniel’s friends are believed to be involved in crime. The reason they haven’t come forward is because they have a deep mistrust of the police, but we can offer them complete anonymity and protection.”
Mr Ross’s distraught parents, Jean and Ivan, launched a national appeal for information on Monday. A £20,000 reward has been offered for information about the killers.
Four men were arrested days after the shooting, but were all released less than a month later.
For Mrs Ross, vital questions remain unanswered about the night her son died just hours after leaving the family home in Kilburn. Why wasn’t his best friend at the club as Daniel was promised? In a club with about 850 revellers, including Daniel’s friends, why have no witnesses come forward?
And crucially, why was Daniel, a loving father of a five-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, shot?
Mrs Ross said: “I can’t think why somebody would want to kill him. People say: ‘Why Daniel? He was so nice.’
“If they were in trouble he would help them out. People I don’t know stop me on the street to tell me about things he’d done for them. One woman said he’d got out of his car to help her with her shopping bags. If he saw little kids on the street he’d tell them to go to school.”
According to people with Mr Ross at the club, he had been talking with a woman during the evening. He then went to tell them he was leaving, turned round and was shot in the head.
Mr Ross died later at University College Hospital in Euston.
In March, detectives said they thought they knew who pulled the trigger but needed witnesses.
On Monday, during an appeal aired on television’s Crimewatch programme, DI Holdcroft promised potential witnesses they would be protected.
He said anyone prepared to testify could make their statement with a false name, be hidden behind a screen in court, have their voice altered during the trial, and be driven to court in a car with blacked-out windows. They could even be given a new home if necessary.
As the anniversary of Daniel’s death approaches, his mother is desperate to see his killers jailed.
“I want justice for Daniel,” she said. “I keep on going because Daniel’s dead and the person who killed him is still on the road, and that’s not right. I don’t want another mother to suffer like me.”
Although her son had problems finding a job as a mechanic, Mrs Ross said that having children had changed him.
She said: “He became a man. He was very protective of them. He’d read to them at night. He loved them more than anything in the world – that was his heart. He was so proud of them.
“I’m still expecting him to come back to me, but of course he’s not coming back.”
Anyone with information about the shooting can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. |
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