Published: 15 June, 2012
by WILLIAM McLENNAN

A SHOOTING at an estate on Tufnell Park Road has been blamed on drug dealers who have made the estate football pitch their “headquarters”.

Two shots are believed to have been fired at a balcony in McCall House hitting a car and a window during the Jubilee bank holiday weekend.

Nobody was injured in the shooting and Trident – the Met’s gun crime taskforce – are investigating bullet casings found at the scene.

Tracy Ismail, Lib  Dem councillor for St George’s ward, which includes Tufnell Park Road, said: “The problem is the estate has kind of been taken over by some locals youths who have made it their headquarters.

“These are not just kids, these are dealers who put their drugs on the estate and in bad weather they go into the stairwells of McCall House.”

Cllr Ismail added that there has been a history of violence on the estate and more needed to be done to curb the worsening anti-social behaviour being carried out by people who do not live on the estate.

“Almost exactly two years ago there was a similar incident in which a young man drove on to the estate on a scooter and fired off two shots,” she said.  “How difficult can it be in this day and age to identify people?”

CCTV was installed on the estate in March after residents raised concerns over groups of youths who were allegedly dealing drugs and drinking at the artificial-surface football pitch between McCall House and Hollins House.

Town Hall crime chief Cllr Paul Convery said it had not been established if the shooting was related to the gang of youths. But he added that the council and police would be working together to identify troublemakers.

“If the parents of these kids are tenants of Islington then we will tell them that their tenancy is at risk if they do not comply with the acceptable behaviour contracts,” he said.

“The emergence of this new gang is clearly very alarming for people who had hoped the problem had been dealt with. It’s an old problem re-emerging.”

Cllr Convery said that he would visit McCall House and Hollins House this weekend to reassure residents that they can give evidence with complete anonymity after fears the witness data leak blunder at the Andover estate had undermined confidence in the council’s efforts to cut anti-social behaviour.