The music was thumping in Zest that night but the atmosphere, far from being happy, was loaded with menace.

Garage night at the Ipswich nightclub had been advertised in Suffolk and trailed even more heavily on pirate radio stations serving the black community in London.

Rival gangs — including members of the South London Peel Dem Crew — occupied different corners of the club, spoiling for a fight.

The tinderbox ignited in the early hours of Saturday, December 9, with an altercation on the dancefloor. Bottles started flying, then someone produced a gun and opened fire.

Four people, including Jimoh Plunkett, 24, from New Cross, South London, suffered gunshot wounds and one person was stabbed. Mr Plunkett, who was found collapsed on the pavement outside the club, died later in hospital.

Detectives think that the dead man was not the intended victim. A gun was found in the club car park but examination revealed that it was not the murder weapon.

A team of Suffolk detectives has been sent to London to trace and interview everyone who was in the nightclub.

Detective Superintendent Dave Cole of Suffolk police said: “The solution to this case will be found in London, not Suffolk. There is an escalation of crime coming out of London into smaller towns. Some of it is undeniably due to the drugs trade and there is a natural progression from drug dealing into violence and the use of guns. Dealers know there are big markets outside London; it’s easy for them to come up the A12 to Ipswich.

“But I don’t think this shooting is to do with drugs. In 30 years as a policeman I’ve never come across a case like this . . . We are determined to find the killer, secure a conviction and send out the message that we don’t want this kind of criminality here.”

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