Smash hit

“The post-mortem has not yet taken place so it is unclear how many times the boy was shot or exactly what type of weapon was used.

“We are talking to the sister, but she is understandably very distressed. However we will continue to speak to her to try and find out more detail as to exactly what has happened.

“The boy was not known to police before this incident and we are not linking this to gangs or any other incidents which have occurred in the past few days.

“This does not appear to have been a botched burglary. I believe these premises were specifically targeted. It is now our job to find out why and exactly who is connected to the house and who the suspects believed they would find inside.

A neighbour of the murdered schoolboy, who attended St Michael’s Secondary School in Bermondsey, said she was shocked by what had happened.

The mother of two, who asked not to be named, said: “I knew the boy and I know the family. Everybody around here is horrified by what has happened.

“For him to be shot as he slept in his bed beggars belief. As far as I know he was a good boy, he went to church regularly and was always pleasant when I saw him in the street.

“As a mother it hits home even harder. This was just a child, what can he have done to deserve to be killed.

“This area has had its problems, but the community has worked hard to turn things round. Now with this shooting and the other incidents that have happened recently it makes me think we are going back to what things used to be like.

“Young people need to understand the hurt they cause by carrying and using weapons.”

On Saturday, a 21-year-old man was stabbed to death in the road adjacent to this latest shooting. Then in the early hours of Sunday morning, there was a shooting at a flat less than a mile away. A man in his 40s was shot dead and another injured.

Another teenage boy was gunned down and killed in South London just a few days ago.

James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, died after he was shot at least twice at an ice rink in Streatham on Saturday night.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Operation Trident Incident Room on 020 87334 704. Anonymous callers should dial Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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