Two drill gangsters who shot and stabbed to death a student in an unprovoked attack outside Greggs and then glorified his murder in rap lyrics have been jailed for a total of 58 years.
Russell Jones, 23, was standing with friends outside a parade of shops in Enfield, north London, when he was shot with a 12-bore shotgun in the street and stabbed repeatedly.
Mr Jones, who was in the last year of his business degree at the University of Hertfordshire, was stabbed in the face and neck and also suffered 11 more knife wounds to his chest and back.
Bilkan Bilkaner and Duke Quainoo, both 20, formed half of the gang of four who carried out the hit – but the other two killers remain at large, the Old Bailey heard.
After the murder Quainoo wrote the rap lyrics: ‘I bored up a p***y and bored up his friend. And one of them ni**as turned ghost’ in reference to the murder.
Their victim died at the scene while one of his friends, 23-year-old Karun Singh, was also knifed during the ‘sudden, violent and bloody’ gang attack outside a branch of Greggs.
They are believed to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time when a fight broke out between rival groups in Enfield and Edmonton.
Bilkan Bilkaner and Duke Quainoo, both 20, have been jailed for 58 years for the gun and knife attack on an innocent group of friends
Murder victim Russell Jones, 23, pictured with his girlfriend Tara Ward shortly before his death
Bus driver Kallum Martin, 25, who ferried the murderers to the scene in his Mercedes A Class, was cleared of murder and manslaughter after insisting he had no idea what the other two had planned.
He was left cowering in the dock moments after the verdicts were returned when Bilkaner and Quainoo leapt on him and rained down a barrage of punches.
When police examined Quainoo’s phone following his arrest they found a series of rap lyrics about gang violence, including a number which boasted about the murder.
One rap bragged: ‘Twin barrel come long and heavy had to chop that down now the weight feels nice.’
Another after the killing, dated April 4, said: ‘I bored up a p***y and bored up his friend. And one of them ni**as turned ghost.’
The following day he noted: ‘4 man step victory Buss that corner see bare man running I was ducking down man. Step opp block on violence. Go ask the enfield ones what we do.’
Bilkaner and Quainoo were jailed for life and each ordered to serve at least 29 years behind bars.
‘This was a shocking and brutal attack without a known motive beyond a desire to cause death or serious injury to others,’ said Judge Mark Dennis QC.
‘It was a premeditated attack carried out mercilessly – murder in its starkest form.’
The judge told the men they had been seduced by ‘an urban culture which embraces violence and criminality’.
‘The precise reason for targeting the deceased, Russell Jones, and his friends remains unknown,’ he added.
‘However, it would appear from the evidence at trial that the victims were picked on at random for no better reason than the fact they were standing together in the street late at night in an area considered to be rival territory.’
B ilkaner and Quainoo formed half of the gang of four who carried out the hit – but two accomplices remain at large
In a moving victim impact statement, Russell’s mother Stephanie Saunders described her son as ‘my strength, my protector and the only man who would always love me unconditionally’.
She said the events of 17 March ‘changed my life forever in the most horrific way imaginable’.
‘All I wanted to do was to take him home and make him better – that is what a mum is supposed to be able to do,’ Ms Saunders wrote.
‘How do you arrange your child’s funeral? There is nothing more unbelievably difficult or comparable.’
Mr Jones, who was in the last year of his business degree at the University of Hertfordshire, was stabbed in the face and neck and suffering 11 more knife wounds to his chest and back
The grieving mother went on to set out the ‘torture’ of being left wondering how aware her son was of what was happening to him when he was attacked.
Russell was just weeks away from completing his degree in international business studies, which Hertfordshire University posthumously awarded him following the murder.
‘I should have seen my son graduate,’ said Ms Saunders.
‘Russell should have seen his graduation and I should have pictures of him in his graduation outfit holding his degree he worked so hard for.’
Describing the ‘cold-blooded’ killing Mr Heywood told jurors at the trial: ‘The attack was vicious in its ferocity.
‘It took place just after 12.30am on March 17 this year.
‘Russell Jones was stabbed a dozen times in all. He was at the very same moments shot in the abdomen with a 12-bore shotgun.
‘An indication of the intention and purpose of his attackers is given by the fact that of those dozen or so wounds, nearly all of them – perhaps as many as 10 – were to his back.’
The prosecutor said the extreme violence meted out also showed that the attackers were determined to kill Mr Jones ‘rather than just to maim’ him and keep him alive.
All four of the men comprising the killing team ‘were directly involved’, Mr Heywood said, each ‘delivering one or more’ wounds to Mr Jones.
‘In addition, somebody there used the gun and shot Russell Jones,’ he added.
‘There was no apparent immediate provocation for the attack.
‘Nothing occurred in the minute or two beforehand gave rise to that level of ferocity, which took the form of an ambush and was also cleverly planned.’
Bilkaner, of Enfield, north London, and Quainoo, of Enfield, north London, were each jailed for life and handed minimum terms of 29 years.