Police and community leaders in Manchester have asked gang members and local residents to give up the killer of Jessie James, the 15-year-old boy who was shot dead in a park on Saturday.

Jessie is believed to have been murdered in a case of mistaken identity or because he rode his bike through a park that is regarded as belonging to the Doddington Gang.

Chief Superintendent Dave Thompson, divisional commander of Greater Manchester Police’s Metropolitan division, urged people to do the right thing.

"Examine your conscience. The shooting has to be a watershed for the community.

"People have to realise we need the help of the community to bring these people to justice."

Police have said that there was not a shred of evidence linking Jessie, who regularly helped his local pastor, to a gang.

Speaking at a press conference today Mr Thompson added that if people did not stand up and tell police what they know then there is an obvious risk that the shooting would continue.

Jessie was the youngest victim of lawlessness in Moss Side, the notorious inner-city suburb of Manchester, since Benji Stanley, 14, was caught in crossfire in 1993 as he queued for a takeaway meal.

Jessie was hit by bullets from a semi-automatic pistol as he stopped to speak to a passer-by in Moss Side Community Park early on Saturday morning. He fell from his mountain bike close to a basketball court and died after being hit by three bullets. Two hit his torso and one lodged in his appendix.

Erinma Bell, chair of the Community Alliance for the Renewal of the Inner South Manchester (CARISMA), said it was wrong to suggest that Moss Side had agun culture anywhere close to that of American cities.

She said "It (Jessie's death) is very disheartening. It hurts to hear a 15 year old's life has been taken away. It is very painful.

"There are a lot of questions being asked but I am sure the community will come together to put a stop to this and try to make sure it does not happen again.

"Somebody once said the perpetuation of evil is when good people do nothing. People should come together to stop this and rid us of this cancer".

One line of inquiry being investigated by police is whether Jessie was shot by a gunman from the Gooch Close gang who assumed wrongly that he was a member of their rivals, the Doddington Gang.

They have been enemies since the early nineties and they have regularly fought for control of the lucrative drug trade.

A red bandana had been tied to the gates of the community park, close to what used to be called the "front line", as a makeshift tribute to the dead teenager. Floral tributes began to spread across the pathway today.

The fatal shooting is the second to take place in Raby Street in a year, and the road appears to be something of a dividing line between gangs.

In June, Ernest Gifford, 45, was shot dead in a house in the same street in a case believed to have been related to drugs. No arrests have been made.

In August, a gun battle broke out in Pepperhill Road between a hooded gang and the occupants of a car. It prompted a series of drive-by shootings.

Tony Lloyd, Labour MP for Manchester Central, said Moss Side was one of the strongest communities in Manchester but also had "extreme violence" within it.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "It’s a wider society problem. Everybody in Britain has got to ask themselves what they have done about the gun culture.

"If it just happens in Moss Side, it is somebody else’s problem, we’ve got to break out of that."

And he warned: "If we don’t stop the guns where they are now, they’ll be in a town, a village near you in the future. That’s what happened with drugs and we’ve got to learn those lessons."

Manchester Academy principal Kathy August told Sky News that Jessie’s mother had visited the school this morning.

She added: "We’ve been able to speak together about Jessie and his achievements at school. Jessie was a very likeable boy who was trying hard to succeed in his GCSEs. We had high expectations of him, and I know that he shared these.

"We are grieving at the school because every single one of our children is unique. This morning we held a series of assemblies at the school to mark our sadness.

"Our focus for today is remembering Jessie and ensuring that each of our girls and boys is supported by the academy."

This summer, residents had celebrated how their lives had changed for the better since the riots a quarter of a century ago. But the upsurge in violence brought about by young men, their faces disguised under hoodies, has raised the spectre of a new turf war.

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