Original subtitles

Seconds.

That's all it takes for a brutal crime to be committed.

GUNSHOTS

My dad found his daughter on the floor in a pool of blood.

But no suspect disappears without a trace.

A clue, a fragment - something is always left behind.

It's just finding that inevitable mistake and making the most of it.

In the West Midlands,

the Major Crime team follows every lead.

You can see the holes in the curtains

just as the bullets have come through,

and then we've got the damage in the coving.

Specialist detectives trained to spot the most subtle of clues.

It can be little things.

You see what they were wearing,

what kind of haircut they had on that day.

Piecing together the truth.

GUNSHOT

Ooh! That's a good one. Amazing.

And never giving up.

Armed police. Show me your hands now.

Show me your hands!

Until those responsible are brought to justice.

We've got to be there, dealing with it quickly.

SHOUTING

Our response will be as robust as the offence itself.

There's two bullet holes through the windows,

and possibly more inside.

They found bullet fragments inside the house.

One fragment? One fragment.

In Dudley, a quiet suburban street has become the centre

of a shocking and violent Major Crime investigation.

All we really know is about 22 minutes past midnight last night,

a call came in from a lady who'd been in a house

with her three children.

Two bullets had come through the window,

and one of them had struck her in the leg.

She was then taken straight to hospital,

and the scene was preserved overnight.

DS Lucy Mooney and DC Charlotte Smith

are first to arrive at the scene.

One in the door, two in the window.

Nothing else, is there?

That would be the one that's caught the lady in the hip.

Presumably she's stood right on the other side.

I mean, that makes me think, as well, did they knock the door

and she's gone to answer it?

I'd say at least 90% of our jobs have firearms involved in them

in one way, shape or form.

Hello?

But what makes this case different is that we've got a victim,

a 30-year-old mother, and she was in her own home,

where she should feel safe with her children.

And she was shot. And she survived by luck.

Come have a look. It's gone right into the top there.

Oh, yeah.

I was gonna say, where was the other one?

Is it literally in the middle of... That's the one.

Well, that's not even the case, is it? Is it? That's the bullet.

That's the actual bullet. Yeah, that's the actual bullet.

So, you can see the holes in the curtains, just about,

as well as the bullets have come through.

And then we've got one quite obvious... mark in the wall there.

And then the searching officers have removed that piece of coving

so they could obviously see the damage in the coving,

and the bullet's been recovered from in there somewhere.

They've got to have been on foot and they've got to got out of that car.

But then where's the casings? Unless it was a revolver.

But if it's a revolver, you've shot once,

you've then got to move the... shoot again.

To get the same place?

Yeah. But just the angle of it. Yeah, I know what you mean.

But then if you've done it on foot, where's the casings? Mm.

Unless they've been smart enough to pick them up.

Bullet holes and a single fragment

are the only evidence detectives have to work with.

Somebody must have been in the garden.

Unless there's two guns.

Unless they've done that one first and then done the windows.

With no obvious motive for the shooting,

Lucy and Charlotte piece together what happened.

So, I went and spoke to dad, and it's a young lady

and three children that live inside the property.

She's got up in the middle of the night

just to go and get herself a cold drink.

Come down to the front door, and then she's been shot.

Dad's been called by one of the children

and gone over and found his daughter on the floor in a pool of blood,

and she thought she was dying.

He saying his daughter's got no issue with anybody.

She literally just takes the kids to school,

and her life revolves around her small children, by the sounds of it.

At this time, looking at the victim herself and her family,

there's nothing to suggest any reason

or any ongoing disputes with anybody

that would cause something of this magnitude to happen.

Hello. My name's Lucy. I'm from the police.

We're the investigation team that's dealing with it. OK?

Okey dokey. Thank you very much for your information.

That might assist us.

Yeah. Is there any way we can get in to look at the cameras?

He's got it all on his phone,

and there's no way he can get up here today. Oh, OK.

CCTV opposite the victim's house

could give detectives a clearer picture of the events that unfolded.

Hello.

The barber won't be back till tomorrow.

We'll just have to press the matter.

We're gonna need that footage, like, now.

Leading the investigation from Perry Barr Police Station

is Detective Inspector Francis Nock.

Is there anyone else who can come and just let us in?

Come and collect the keys from him? We can access systems ourselves.

We won't be taking anything.

We'll have to try and figure out with him somehow. 'OK.'

See you in a bit.

The gaffer wants us to get in there one way or another.

CCTV is almost always the major line of enquiry

and the most important source of evidence.

You know, we're looking for vehicles making off of speed,

we're looking for people running away,

that first starting point as to who's likely to be responsible.

Illegal firearms carry a constant risk of injury or death.

At any one time,

an estimated 1,000 illegal firearms

are on the streets of England and Wales.

Most of these are smuggled from Eastern Europe

across the Channel, hidden in vehicles and parcels.

GUNSHOTS

Some start as legal blank-firing guns,

bought online for less than £100 and converted into lethal weapons.

GUNSHOTS

A genuine handgun can fetch around £3,000 on the black market,

many offenders dumping them quickly after use.

In the last year, almost 250 have been taken off the streets

of the West Midlands.

While the team wait to see

if the barber's shop camera yields any results,

lead CCTV coordinator Rosie Downes

is reviewing footage uploaded by one of the victim's neighbours.

So, it doesn't point at the offence location itself.

However, it does capture audio.

So, what we hear at 0015 33 hours

is five loud bangs...

FIVE BANGS

...followed by an acceleration of a vehicle.

TYRES SCREECH, CAR ENGINE REVS

The audio of the shots confirms that a discharge happened.

So you couple that CCTV

with the ballistics that were found at the address,

and you can say five shots were fired at the house.

That's really important to us.

But at the moment, we don't know who's involved.

Go back to... INDISTINCT

All we can say about the people who committed this offence

is they had access to firearms.

So you would assume that everybody who's involved in this offence

is extremely dangerous.

You're thinking at a million miles an hour about the risks.

It's really, really frightening.

If you don't get them quick enough, they might try again.

FIVE BANGS

ENGINE REVS

FIVE BANGS

ENGINE REVS

14 hours ago,

a young mother of three was shot through her front door

in a brutal drive-by shooting on a suburban street in Dudley.

Detectives have no suspects, and there's an update on the victim,

who remains in hospital with a gunshot wound.

What it's all about is unclear at this point in time,

but the shooting of a woman in the middle of the night

behind her own front door is an exceptionally serious incident.

It's a real tough starting point

because we don't know whether we've got people on foot.

We don't know if there's more than one vehicle,

so that all needs to come together

from a really determined investigation in the locality

really, really quickly.

They've got a massive dog as well. I'll tell you this for nowt.

He's ferocious.

Hunting down the footage

detectives hope will capture the vehicle on camera

is PC Gurpreet Singh.

When we start looking at CCTV,

the dream is you get footage of it happening

and you start tracking it forwards and tracking it back,

and you get your answers.

Do you know what time somebody's coming back?

I'm just here from West Midlands Police.

First days of investigations,

you're dealing with people not being in,

or people not wanting to talk to you, or gaps in your CCTV,

struggling with getting your track.

And it can be really, really frustrating,

especially when the motive at the current time is still unknown.

If I were to send you, like, a link with some timings,

just like a five-minute clip, would you be able to check it?

And if there is anything, would you be able to send it to us?

'Think I've got a theory.'

Back at the office,

a file PC Singh has shared has caught the attention

of CCTV lead Rosie Downes.

Just after the bangs and the acceleration of the car,

what we've identified is this vehicle coming away.

The offence location is just up here on the right-hand side.

Rosie notices a detail on the car

that could make it easier to spot on other cameras.

Importantly, it's got one headlight working, one out.

When we track cars on CCTV,

a distinguishing feature on a vehicle

can massively assist us with that track.

There could be hundreds of cars on that area.

When one's got a faulty headlight,

that narrows your parameters massively.

So, five minutes before the offence takes place,

we have this vehicle coming down

from the direction of Birmingham New Road.

With multiple CCTV sightings of the car,

Rosie turns to the team responsible

for automatic number plate recognition, or ANPR.

So, I've sent him through the times,

and he's come back with a vehicle

which is hitting ANPR in the local area.

Its passenger headlight is out.

It's reported stolen on the 2nd of July, so the day before.

So it definitely looks like it's going to be the car.

The Audi S3 was stolen prior to the shooting.

It's been 36 hours since the shots were fired,

and the clock is ticking to find CCTV of the theft.

Just to let you know,

your car was used in another incident that's happened.

People don't tend to use their own cars

to commit crime because they come straight back to them.

So people will steal cars or use associates' stolen cars

to try and essentially conceal their identity from the police.

As well as tracking down CCTV of the car theft,

the team are under pressure to secure more footage

from the street where the shots were fired.

So, it's a Audi S3, front headlight is out.

Now, footage from the barber shop overlooking the victim's home

has finally come in.

Take that back and zoom in.

First flash.

Second flash. Third flash.

The barber shop footage captures three flashes of light

consistent with a muzzle flash from a gun

on the passenger side of vehicle one.

And then the car speeds off at exactly the same time

as we have the audio of the car accelerating away,

and therefore it's giving us confidence

that we are following the correct vehicle.

FIVE BANGS

ENGINE REVS

Every week, over 200 cars are stolen

from the streets of the West Midlands.

For organised criminals,

their target's essential to the operation,

moving drugs, carrying weapons and enabling violent attacks

behind cloned plates that lead investigators nowhere.

When the job's done, a network of chop shops across the region

can strip and erase a vehicle within hours,

wiping the evidence before anyone comes looking.

But every car leaves a trail.

ANPR cameras, forensic evidence,

cell site data.

And in the West Midlands,

that trail is exactly where the investigation begins.

Welcome to the briefing for Operation Icefox,

which is an attempted murder by shooting.

Took place in the early hours of yesterday.

It's now 32 hours since a young mother was shot

behind her own front door on a suburban street.

She remains in hospital with life-changing injuries,

and the only lead is a stolen Audi S3.

So, when you start looking at Audi S3s in the area

with a headlight out, PE15 comes up.

So, last night we put a PNC marker for F on,

AVR stops only,

with a strategy around it for everybody to be arrested.

If anyone does come across it parked up,

then it'll go off, and we'll get it forensically recovered.

With the investigation evolving rapidly,

the team's priority is locating the stolen car.

This shows the offending vehicle being stolen.

Detective Sergeant Lyndsey Davenport

has just received footage of the theft

sent in by the Audi owner's neighbour.

Can clearly see it's been... light up

as though it's been activated with a key,

rather than someone forcing entry to the vehicle.

So, we're trying to understand

if the vehicle previous owner has kept a key,

and if so, have they got something to do with knowing

where that car is now,

and either that person or anyone associated with them

have stolen this vehicle.

At the moment, there's nothing to suggest any link

between the registered keeper of the car and anybody else.

However, it is a little bit suspicious

that somebody appears to just walk down the road,

unlock the car and drive it away.

ENGINE REVS

We're keeping an open mind

as to how somebody might have another key for that car.

After the theft has taken place,

we've got the ANPR hit of the last sighting of that vehicle

travelling through,

and then we've got nothing covering this junction itself.

The CCTV team continues to track the stolen Audi

towards the outskirts of Dudley.

That's the most popular route out.

Feels strange that he'd be heading out to, like, Himley and Wombourne,

albeit if you've got a place that you're looking to dump the car

and you're in contact with somebody. Yeah.

Do you leave it in the countryside?

When you start moving into more rural areas,

you have massive stretches of road that aren't lit very well.

Less cameras.

Houses, even if there are any,

are really far back off the country road.

So if they did have cameras,

the chances of them catching anything are slim to none.

With the Audi disappearing into miles of dark country roads,

detectives may have lost their only lead in the case.

But by rewinding the cameras,

they're about to get their first glimpse of a suspect.

Eight days ago, an Audi S3 was stolen.

By the next night, it's at the centre of a violent attack,

as gunmen shoot a young mother in her own home.

Leaving her in hospital with life-changing injuries.

Nothing scares the public more than firearms being discharged

on the streets.

When you see an innocent person injured,

and seriously injured as a result,

just goes to show the possible consequences of this type of crime.

To be fair, it sounds like the car.

ENGINE REVS And it's gone.

It's gonna be the car, isn't it? Which way is it going?

Led by Detective Inspector Nock,

Major Crime Team 1 are hunting the Audi's trail,

piecing together its movements in the deadly aftermath.

TALK OVER EACH OTHER

There is no sense to anywhere the roads go. Yeah.

But the trail runs cold -

the Audi seemingly vanishing into the night.

She said it hasn't gone here or here.

So then we skipped to here, and it didn't pass.

As they wait for the Audi to resurface,

detectives rewind the clock,

retracing its movements before the shooting.

So, we got it to Weavers Rise,

which is a car park not covered by CCTV,

and it backs onto a canal.

24 hours before the shooting,

CCTV captures the Audi entering a car park off Weavers Rise,

around three miles from the scene of the attack.

There's no CCTV in the car park,

but we see somebody walking away from it.

The figure is believed to be the car thief,

but for the next 23 hours,

no-one is seen entering or leaving the car park...

...until 30 minutes before the shooting...

...when the Audi pulls out.

Now the team faces a critical question -

how did the driver get back to the car?

We'd need to have a look at access points onto Weavers Rise.

Obviously, we notice the canal,

and then we start to look at the canal entrances around that.

The theory being that somebody's been dropped off,

walked along the canal.

Quite quickly, we identified a location

covering the next entrance along to the canal towpath.

It's here that we identified a vehicle pulling up.

Ten minutes before the Audi leaves Weavers Rise,

CCTV captures another car pulling up on the opposite side of the canal.

Three people get out.

One stays with the vehicle.

The other two head across the towpath towards the car park.

Whilst it is dark, you do start to see some features on the clothing.

And it was from here that we were able to look at local ANPR cameras

to see if we can identify what that second vehicle was.

That's a big break because we've obviously got a vehicle,

a vehicle that didn't want to go into Weavers Rise,

and therefore a vehicle that somebody wants us not to see.

So identifying that vehicle

is potentially gonna give us something

which comes back to a suspect.

Right. Good morning, everyone.

Welcome to the status briefing for Operation Icefox.

Pre-offence now.

Our Audi basically goes from the theft,

down to Weavers Rise,

which is where it gets dumped after the theft. Right here.

We're on shooting day.

Audi emerges from here at 23:39.

At 23:29, a dark vehicle comes down the road from here,

stays there for a couple of minutes here,

and then it looks like three people emerge from the vehicle.

The passenger walks around and swaps with the driver,

the driver and another passenger walk out of the vehicle.

One of them puts his hood up,

and they walk onto the canal towpath.

Ten minutes before our car comes out.

What is it? It's a BMW 330 diesel M Sport auto in black.

Insured to Kile Straker.

He's the policyholder of the insurance

and the only named driver on that vehicle since BLEEP June 2025.

The owner of the BMW, Kile Straker, is no stranger to police.

A career criminal with a string of convictions

and deep-rooted links to organised crime.

Now we can look at Kile Straker, his background,

the intelligence around him, his previous convictions,

his telecoms work, his financials,

and we can start to do an investigation into Kile Straker

at the same time as we're doing an investigation

into the shooting in the hope that those two will meet.

As the prime suspect, Straker needs to be brought in for questioning.

But first, the team must find him.

They trace his movements through financial records and telecoms data.

Hiya. It's DC Smith calling from West Midlands Police.

Financial intelligence can really assist us in an investigation.

But just like CCTV,

sometimes when you think you're going to get a lot,

you might get absolutely nothing at all.

So, we've got an attempt murder investigation

that we're running at the moment.

One of our suspects has used the M6 toll.

I'm just wondering, if we've got the time...

the exact time of the transaction and how much,

what information would we be able to get

if we sent a data protection form through?

When you're looking into people's financials,

it can massively help you house somebody,

especially if you've got a number of locations

where you think they could be.

It can be little things such as earlier in the day,

they might have been to a shop.

You go to the shop, you get the footage,

and you see what they were wearing,

what kind of haircut they had on that day, things like that.

We have come up with a couple of addresses of interest.

It just needs a bit more digging as to where those places are

in relation to all the ANPRs

and who lives there and what we can link to him, really.

Issue we've got with him is he's got a registered address

in Wolverhampton.

Looking at the ANPR hits of his vehicle

and looking at the transactions he makes,

it doesn't look like he lives in Wolverhampton.

He looks like he lives more over the Tamworth area.

I am a genius.

A series of cash transactions links Straker to a woman.

I'm saying that... Kile Straker's...

Where does she live, then?

BLEEP.

It's a good enough shout.

As the net tightens around Straker,

there's a breakthrough in the search for the missing Audi.

Change of plates.

The car, running on dead plates, is flagged on ANPR.

Yes, Lyn! Yes!

We tend to find that where people are changing plates,

that they've thought through what they're gonna be doing

and how they're going to try and get away with it afterwards.

Ultimately, it's a way to try and throw us off the scent.

Now it's been identified,

the Audi starts lighting up cameras 20 miles from the crime scene

on the opposite side of Birmingham.

Tamworth! Oh, bloody hell!

CCTV shows both the Audi and Kile Straker's BMW

making the same journey after the shooting.

ANPR camera.

The girls have tracked it to the ANPR camera.

So, they travel up in convoy up to Tamworth area.

That has the front headlight out.

As the team closes in on Kile Straker,

new footage emerges,

placing the Audi, with its dead plates,

in a car park less than two hours after the shooting.

Quite tall, isn't he? Mm.

Good clothing there for you. Yeah.

He's not that young either, is he?

Oh, you know what? Oh. Oh.

THEY CHUCKLE

The driver bears a striking resemblance to Kieron Atkins,

a man already known to the police.

His number is on Kile Straker's phone records

on the night of the shooting.

He's the bloke that he's on the phone to constantly before 10:50.

We already know that Kile Straker is involved in this incident.

We're looking at his phone contacts throughout the time period,

and we can see Kieron Atkins features.

Now, we don't know on reading that information alone

what exactly Kieron Atkins' involvement

in this offence is, if any.

And all of a sudden, we've got Kieron Atkins in our Audi,

which is another great break in the investigation.

Right, we need to work around him.

Excelente.

I anticipate we'll be raising him as a suspect in the next...

Hopefully, in the next five or six hours.

Linking suspects Kieron Atkins and Kile Straker

is a breakthrough for Major Crime Team 1.

And now new evidence has emerged

that may explain the motive behind the shooting.

The case theory is that this is a debt

to the responsible OCG, a man called Kile Straker.

This is likely to be a kind of a...

"You'd better pay up" type of thing.

But the team discover no-one in the house is responsible for that debt.

Conflicts can start with something small - a petty argument,

a falling out, or an unpaid drug debt.

GUNSHOT

Retaliation is often swift,

but the information they act on isn't always reliable.

Targets are misidentified...

GUNSHOT

...addresses are wrong,

the consequences of which can be devastating

because violence tied to drugs doesn't stay contained.

GUNSHOTS

Across the region,

drug supply drives organised gang activity,

often bringing violence,

kidnappings, firearms and ruthless debt enforcement in its wake.

SHOUTING, THUD

And when the violence spills onto residential streets

in the West Midlands,

it's ordinary families who can end up paying the price.

GUNSHOT

As the investigation gathers pace,

Rosie uncovers a crucial piece of CCTV

from the night of the shooting,

traced back through Straker's financial records.

So, we had details of the withdrawal of cash

in the kind of Coseley-Sedgley area

at 10:45 on the evening of the 2nd of July from Kile Straker.

So, CCTV was recovered from this location,

and lo and behold...

...what we see is the BMW pulling up outside of the post office.

The use of Straker's bank card

a short time prior to when we see our BMW on CCTV

is really useful for a number of reasons.

First of all, it gives us a location for the BMW

because of the CCTV around the cashpoint,

which shows the BMW arrive.

Secondly, it gives us a pinpoint and an identification

for Straker himself, because we see a person on CCTV

get out of that vehicle and use his bank card to commit a transaction.

So there is a high probability that that is him.

The really important thing about this CCTV for us

was when he gets out of the car to make the cash withdrawal,

he locks the car,

suggesting he was the only occupant of the car at that time.

Shortly after withdrawing the cash,

detectives believe Straker collects his two co-offenders,

drives to the canal,

where two of the men switch from the BMW into the Audi.

It's a hot task.

We're gonna be jacking it up as quick as we can.

Thanks, Barry. Cheers. Bye.

DI Francis Nock has been given the green light to arrest Kile Straker.

BMW 330 diesel M Sport auto in black,

insured to Kile Straker.

He's the policyholder of the insurance and the only named driver.

A marker is placed on Straker's BMW.

We've got to do that as quickly as possible

because the people we've identified are a risk to the victims,

and a risk to the community.

The moment his car is picked up by ANPR,

armed officers will move in.

'I'll confirm that now.'

Once somebody's been identified in an investigation as a suspect,

especially in a firearm job,

if you don't get them quick enough, they might dispose of evidence.

They might hurt somebody else.

The priority right now is Kile Straker.

Armed Response officers kit up

and prepare to intercept Kile Straker's vehicle.

Equipped with carbines, Tasers

and purpose-built armed response vehicles called ARVs,

these specially trained officers operate with precision.

SIREN WAILS

Shortly before 10pm,

Straker's BMW triggers an ANPR camera

on the outskirts of Birmingham.

In a tightly coordinated manoeuvre,

four ARVs, supported by a dog unit and aerial surveillance,

prepare to strike.

CAR HORN BEEPS, SIREN WAILS

FIVE BANGS

ENGINE REVS

A mother of three has been shot in her home in a brutal attack

and is in hospital with life-changing injuries.

SIREN WAILS

Now Major Crime Team 1

has finally tracked down the suspected gunman.

We always look for the easiest and most effective way

to bring people into custody safely.

And for Kile Straker, that is a strike on his vehicle.

Armed response officers are moving in

to stop suspect Kile Straker.

DOG BARKS

Hands behind your back now.

BARKING CONTINUES

The strategy around the vehicle,

because of the offence and the involvement of the vehicle,

was to arrest all occupants

on suspicion of the attempted murder.

There was a passenger in the vehicle when it was stopped,

a chap by the name of Ethan Colbourne.

At this point in time, we don't know whether Ethan Colbourne

is something to do with the investigation or not.

During the stop, the team recover three phones.

They could contain evidence to help secure a conviction against Straker.

The amount of data that is now stored on somebody's mobile phone

is more than most computers.

Depending on your privacy settings and how you set your phone up,

it can store all your messages,

all your pictures, videos, your locations.

And if we can access those phones,

download that information and review it,

it can open up investigations in a whole new way.

This is not Kile Striker's first interaction with police.

He knows right from the moment the blue lights go on behind him

how he's got to play it, and he's got to play it

as an innocent man because he knows this body-worn camera

might be shown to a jury in due course.

He's an organised criminal -

he's immediately thinking about how is best to present himself.

Two weeks on from the shooting,

Kile Straker, the group's key suspect,

is finally in custody.

Ethan Colbourne, the passenger in Straker's car,

is unknown to Major Crime Team 1.

But he's detained while detectives determine

what role, if any, he played.

What vehicle was this, sorry?

When you've got people in custody, you've got 24 hours

in the first instance.

You've got 36 hours if you can convince a superintendent

to extend it that far.

If you want them any longer than that,

you need to go to a court and obtain a warrant of further detention.

That means, in custody,

everything has to move quickly, and there's lots to do.

We've got a circumstantial case at the moment.

We need to make sure we've overturned every stone

and left nothing to chance when we approach CPS for charging advice.

In terms of Straker, we put a marker on his BMW last night.

It got on the move at about half nine,

something like that.

Coming from Tamworth back over to Dudley

after nearly two days of inactivity.

The ARVs got behind it. He was arrested from the vehicle.

Also in the vehicle was an Ethan Colbourne.

He lives in Tipton,

kind of in a very similar area to where Kieron Atkins lives.

So, we don't know the relevance of Ethan Colbourne at the moment.

What we've got in the immediacy is three phones -

two iPhones and a Nokia burner.

Straker's iPhone is switched on and been intercepted.

So, fingers crossed, that's got some stuff in it.

We have got quite a nice custody time in terms of kind of 11:00,

so that takes us through to 11:00 tonight,

11:00 tomorrow morning with a Section 42 extension.

But currently, essentially, we're not there. We need more.

The team now have just 24 hours

to produce further evidence to keep Kile Straker in custody.

Detectives fast track phone analysis

and intensify the search for more CCTV.

What we've got is a team tracking this car forwards.

The next positive sighting of it is the ANPR camera

that you're going to be tracking back from at 0056. Between here...

25 minutes. ...and here is a ten-minute journey.

It's taken them 25 minutes.

So we need to understand where they've gone.

Can somebody get side and rear photographs

of Colbourne and...

close up photograph of his tattoo on the back of his left hand?

Following his arrest, Straker's BMW was impounded

and sent straight to forensics for analysis.

The team work in full protective suits,

masks and double gloves.

One stray hair or one skin cell

could contaminate a sample and destroy its value in court.

We're looking at getting gunshot residue,

but gunshot residue has a finite window where it's useful.

I'm swabbing the steering wheel, the gear lever,

and the iDrive controller.

Gunshot residue is microscopic, invisible to the naked eye.

Particles of lead, barium and antimony expel

when a firearm is discharged, settling on everything nearby.

On a person, it could be gone within hours.

On a hard surface left undisturbed, it can last indefinitely.

The clock started the moment that trigger was pulled.

80. Three. 20. 40. 60. 80. Four.

Roughly 425.

As the entire team works flat out to find the evidence needed

to charge Straker and Colbourne,

a warrant is issued for the arrest of Kieron Atkins.

But his phone has gone dead,

and detectives are struggling to track him down.

When you've got suspects still outstanding,

like in this case, Kieron Atkins, it's reasonable to believe

that when we arrested Straker and Colbourne,

their families might have passed that information on.

Outstanding suspects then try and do as much as they can

to try and stop themselves being caught,

such as dropping their phone,

moving address, maybe trying to leave the country.

And it makes it a lot harder for us to try and find them then.

Analysis of Atkins' old handset shows repeated calls

to a number registered in West Bromwich.

We know from intelligence that he's got a girlfriend

who lives in a block of flats in that area,

so what we've then done is deployed into the area

to see whether we can pick him up on any CCTV.

Before an arrest can be made,

DI Francis Nock needs proof that Kieron Atkins is living at the flat.

A surveillance team is deployed to the area.

The team confirm it's Kieron Atkins.

SIREN WAILS

So, there's a lot of risk in relation to an armed arrest,

because even though they're trained officers,

you're putting firearms in that area

potentially with somebody who also has guns.

Roger that.

Armed officers move in.

We haven't found the firearm yet, so he could have access to that.

He could dispose of it.

Having them in custody isn't the end.

We want to get them charged for this offence.

Between the three of them,

everybody who's involved in this offence is extremely dangerous.

But we need more to charge these three suspects.

Hello, mate. You OK?

What's... Is it, Kieron Atkins? Yeah?

Do I get a phone call tonight?

I've yet to talk to the officers about anything at the moment,

but we'll go through all that.

What has he been arrested for? Attempted murder. Yeah.

At approximately 0020 hours. Yeah.

The offender discharged a firearm from a silver Audi S3.

You're gonna be staying here

for the purpose of securing and preserving evidence.

That is basically a way of saying we need to interview you.

We've obviously got a lot of other stuff that we need to do

as part of this investigation.

Take or use any drugs? Heroin, cocaine, cannabis?

Cannabis. Cannabis.

When did you last have any? Earlier on.

How much do you have? About an eighth.

How much have you had today? About three spliffs.

Three spliffs today.

Right. Anything else you want to tell me?

Do I get a phone call tonight or not?

Gonna be up front. I'm doubtful.

As soon as it is able that you are allowed to have a phone call,

we will tell you, and you can make a phone call.

Your girlfriend you want to talk to? Yeah.

Is your girlfriend's number on this, just so I can take it?

Can I keep that? Yeah, you can keep it.

But I'll write it down.

With three suspects now in custody,

Straker, Atkins and Colbourne,

police have 24 hours to convince the CPS to press charges

or they walk.

FIVE BANGS

A horrendous late-night shooting

has left a mother of three in hospital

with life-changing injuries.

Armed police have arrested suspects Kile Straker and Ethan Colbourne.

And now Kieron Atkins is in custody

after being arrested near his girlfriend's home.

At Perry Barr, DS Lucy Mooney has made a breakthrough

in the hunt for the stolen Audi,

which hasn't been seen on camera for two days.

The Audi moves on the 12th to the 13th overnight,

and when it's deposited on the 13th,

the people have jumped over the wall there, effectively.

This is our stolen Audi that somebody tried to put a cover over

and then put a bin in front of it to try and conceal it.

There's three people that've come out.

Where the Audi's deposited,

just in the corner here, you see a couple of figures moving around.

These are the taxis that they've called to come and collect them.

The man on the left looks to be Mr Straker.

The one next to him, Atkins, cos of the size of him.

And then there's another.

Appears to be a white lad getting into the front of the taxi there.

CCTV now links Straker, Atkins

and potentially Colbourne to the stolen Audi.

Yeah, the girls have spotted it this morning,

and then they got that recovered.

As the police seized the Audi and it heads to forensics,

detectives focus on tying Colbourne to the investigation.

Ethan Colbourne was arrested by accident out of Straker's BMW.

Looking into his phone work, yes, he's in contact with Straker

on the day of the offence,

but it doesn't prove anything on its own.

It just shows that they're friends and they're talking.

Without more evidence,

Colbourne's not gonna be able to be charged for this offence.

With stronger evidence needed to charge Ethan Colbourne,

detectives bring him in for questioning.

Ethan, you were arrested yesterday at 23:48 hours

on suspicion of attempted murder.

What can you tell me about this incident?

No comment.

Two vehicles were involved in this offence.

The first vehicle I want to ask you about is a...

it's a grey Audi A3 Quattro.

What can you tell me about this vehicle?

No comment.

Do you know who owns it? No comment.

I want to talk as well now

about a second vehicle that was involved in this.

And this is the black BMW.

This is the vehicle that you were arrested from yesterday.

What can you tell me about this vehicle? No comment.

OK. Who owns that vehicle? No comment.

Kile Straker. How do you know him? No comment.

Talk to me about your knowledge of firearms.

Have you used firearms before? No comment.

OK. Do you have access to firearms? No comment.

Is there anything that you want to add or clarify explain at all?

No comment.

In that case, the time is 17:27,

and I'll be ending this interview here.

Now it's Kile Straker's turn to be interviewed.

You were arrested on suspicion of attempt murder.

Do you understand what attempted murder is? Yeah.

Can you describe it to me?

I've attempted to murder somebody. Perfect.

At approximately...

quarter past midnight on the 3rd of July,

five shots were fired.

The victim had been walking down the stairs of her property.

Tell me everything you know about this incident. No comment.

And tell me about where you were

around quarter past midnight on the 3rd of July. No comment.

Were you at home? No comment.

Was this all a mistake? No comment.

Straker isn't talking,

but the forensic team have completed their analysis of his BMW.

And now the Audi has arrived at the lab.

Mr Straker, his driving licence.

I've got several sets of car keys as well.

Yeah, we've got an Audi... Audi key there.

CAR BLEEPS

The car keys link Kile Straker to the vehicle used in the shooting.

It's a major breakthrough in the investigation.

Right. Good morning, everyone.

Detectives must now determine Ethan Colbourne's role, if any,

and build a robust case to present to the CPS.

So, briefly, you will be aware, of course, we've got Kieron Atkins,

but we don't know the relevance of Ethan Colbourne at the moment.

Obviously, we'll treat him with caution, not to...

notwithstanding that Kile Straker is our focus.

Thank you very much, everybody.

'We've got lots and lots going on with the investigation

'with these people in custody.'

So our focus needs to be getting through these custody periods,

making sure we secure and preserve all the possible evidence

to make our case, when we come to charging advice,

as good as it can possibly be.

Tell me about the firearm in the vehicle. No comment.

Did you know about the firearm? No comment.

Who had the firearm? No comment.

Whilst Karl Straker continues to be interviewed,

Charlotte is conducting a thorough analysis of his phones.

This is a picture that we've recovered

from Straker's handset download

on the 11th of July at 22:41.

We looked at the device

and looked at what that device was doing at that time,

and it showed us that at the time the screenshot was taken,

he was on a FaceTime with somebody.

This is clearly a FaceTime, cos you can see him in the corner.

That's Straker.

When we've got a download such as this,

where you can see that there's communications from Mr Straker

to various other people about guns and screenshots of guns,

pictures of guns...

Personally, I've been through the phone,

and there's text messages about guns.

Not recovering the gun, whilst frustrating,

doesn't prohibit us now from demonstrating

that he has involvement in firearms,

which will strengthen our case against him.

Did someone from your vehicle get out of the vehicle

and shoot at the house? No comment.

Or was the firearm discharged from inside the vehicle?

No comment.

The team have yet to recover the gun that was used in the shooting,

but the image in the phone call gives them a huge clue.

We don't know what our firearm in this incident is,

but it might be that weapon.

And to have him linked to a firearm

which corresponds with what might have been used in this offence

is obviously really powerful.

Kieron Adkins is the final suspect to be questioned.

Detectives have CCTV of him with the stolen Audi,

but they still need more evidence

before they can put the case to the CPS.

My client wishes to put forward a statement.

I deny attempting to murder anyone.

I formally advise my client to exercise his right to silence

by answering all further questions by using two words.

Those two words being "no comment" and "no comment" only.

CCTV tracking has identified the offending vehicle

to be a stolen Audi S3 Quattro in grey.

But tell me where you were on the 1st of July.

We'll start there. It was Tuesday night, two weeks ago.

No comment.

And how did you get home after the Audi had been driven away?

No comment.

Where was the Audi taken to? No comment.

Is there anything else at all you can tell me

in relation to the theft of the Audi? No comment.

Deeper analysis of Straker's phones

has uncovered a new lead in the investigation

into the stolen car.

In a case like this, when we have been able to get into the phone,

it opens up a lot of opportunities for our investigation.

So clearly, Straker previously had possession of the S3.

He's got messages on his phone.

Straker is in communication with someone called K25.

HE READS FIRST MESSAGE

Text messages confirm Kile Straker was the previous owner of the Audi

and that he kept a second key after selling it.

On the day of the theft of the Audi,

Straker sent him a message saying, "Yeah, we need that car today, bro."

Back and forth messages around the theft of the vehicle.

For us, this is huge because it shows that Straker is organised

and had this car stolen for hire.

Further WhatsApp calls K25, because he can't help himself,

then sends a message of himself driving an Audi,

drives down... drives the Audi down to the agreed drop-off point,

Weavers Rise. Yeah.

Taxi back. Walsall Street.

In comes the taxi. Out comes profile one.

There you go.

Readily identifiable as Kye Everitt,

who is arrested for attempted murder,

threats to kill, going equipped. So a man of violence as well.

Kye Everitt is well known to police

and has a number of serious offences on his record.

Kye Everitt is now a suspect in this investigation.

We're satisfied at this time

he's the person who actually stole the car,

and he needs to be arrested immediately.

The team track Everitt down to an address

and the Tactical Support Unit get a warrant for his arrest.

Three men have been arrested

on suspicion of attempted murder

after a mother was shot in a drive-by attack at her home.

She remains in hospital with life-changing injuries.

Detectives believe they may have a crucial new lead

in the theft of the vehicle used in the shooting.

Grey tracksuit. Man bag over.

You can see that it is the man who's stolen the Audi

and the man who drops it of Weavers Rise.

Kye Everitt has been identified as the suspect in the Audi theft,

and officers are now moving in to arrest him.

With Everitt detained,

the focus shifts back to the prime suspects in custody.

Time is running out,

but the investigation is far from over.

So, just check the timing. So, this one started at 00...

0015.

So, we identify the Audi as a stolen vehicle

that was stolen in Wednesbury the day before.

It comes down from Wednesbury, stays in Dudley,

and then goes and commits the offence.

Through our CCTV, we've seen that it interacts

before and after the offence with a BMW 330.

That is a vehicle insured

to an OCG member called Kile Straker.

We've obviously got more for Straker

than for Atkins and Colbourne at this point in time.

It's his BMW that's linked.

Atkins and Colbourne,

we are dependent on phone work and interactions with Straker himself.

My assessment of it would be we could do with a bit more

if we're gonna be charging those two,

and we really need to try and find it.

We had this six-minute gap just ever so slightly pre-offence,

between 2356 and 0006,

that we've been trying to fill.

And consistent track for us there would be really, really helpful

cos it negates the ability for anybody to say,

"I got out of the car."

As Kile Straker, Kieron Atkins and Ethan Colbourne

enter their final hours of custody,

new evidence emerges about the Audi's movements

in the minutes before the shooting.

What happens here is the Audi pulls into petrol station,

registration plate clearly displayed,

same characteristics as our offending vehicle -

the headlights being out.

What we've then got is Ethan Colbourne

starts to fuel up the car with petrol.

It's here that we get that really good facial image

that clearly identifies that person as Kieron Atkins.

This petrol station confirms

that there are at least three people in that vehicle.

That therefore puts Kile Straker as the driver for the offence.

It puts Ethan Colbourne and Kieron Atkins as the two passengers.

For Major Crime Team 1,

footage showing all three suspects in the Audi

just 30 minutes before the shooting is a major turning point.

We've got our offending vehicle on the forecourt of a garage

showing the registration plates.

For us, this is absolutely huge

because it puts them in that car very, very close to the offence.

So there is no way now they can ever say,

"Wasn't me, wasn't there, wasn't in the car."

So it massively gives us so much evidence against them

for this offence that we just didn't have before.

We combine that with the evidence we've already got,

and I think we're in a position to charge these people.

All right. Thank you. Bye.

Kile, you're being charged with the following three offences.

You don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention now something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Thank you very much. Bye.

Charged with attempt murder. Yes!

We've had the call from CPS,

and they're willing to charge all three

with attempted murder and possession of a firearm.

It's an absolute massive relief for us.

Right. If you put Kile back in C29, please. Thank you. Thank you.

Oh, I'm so happy.

Right, Ethan, from the 3rd of July this year

at Dudley, in the county of West Midlands,

you attempted a murder according to Sections 1-1

of the Criminal Attempts Act of 1981.

On the 3rd of July, had in your possession a firearm

with intent by means thereof to endanger life,

and that's according to Section 16 of and schedule six

to the Firearms Act of 1968.

Doing what we do,

whilst it's absolutely fantastic to bring justice,

looking at the victim herself,

she was in her own home,

where she should feel safe with her children, and she was shot.

And for the rest of her life, she's gonna remember that.