Amaan Shakoor, 16, was shot in the face metres away from his Walthamstow home in April 2018

By Victoria Munro

Amaan Shakoor (courtesy of Metropolitan Police)

The grieving family of a Walthamstow teenager shot dead five years ago are offering a £50,000 reward for help to finally catch his killer.

Amaan Shakoor, 16, died on 3rd April, 2018, after he was shot in the face with a shotgun just metres away from his Queen’s Road home.

Two suspects fled the scene in a white Hyundai, later found burned in Durban Road, while “one of his closest friends” Mohammed Asghar, then 15, was taken to Whipps Cross with a stab wound to the hand.

Two men were quickly arrested but police did not have enough evidence to charge them and, after numerous appeals and a £20,000 reward failed to break the “wall of silence”, concluded they had “exhausted all lines of enquiry” last year.

Despite this, Amaan’s father Mohammed Shakoor told ITV news the family is still “waiting for people to come forward” and hope a new reward will encourage them to do so.

He said: “As a father, I will never give up searching for Amaan. I believe that there is someone out there who does hold vital information that can lead to this case being resolved.”

He added that he has visited Amaan’s grave “every day for five years” and that the family, who had to move away from Walthamstow, “are not able to move on at all” without justice.

At Amaan’s inquest last May, East London coroner Graeme Irvine sent a message to the public to “think very carefully” about whether they have information that could assist police.

He added: “I do not think we should lose sight of the fact that this was a young man about to embark on his life and clearly his family were very proud of him. There’s no evidence he was involved in criminality to any real extent.”

Speaking to the press in 2021, Detective Chief Inspector Perry Benton said: “There were other people there when Amaan was shot and I’ve no doubt that even people who weren’t there know who was responsible.

“I understand that in some circles, it is seen as a betrayal of trust to talk to the police. But I would say to those people, some of whom were close friends of Amaan, that not doing so is an even greater betrayal.”

Anyone with information should contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555 111.

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