Three men and a teenager murdered an innocent NHS worker in east London last year in an act of retaliation as part of a gang “feud”, a jury at the Old Bailey has been told.
Vagnei Colubali, 23, Mohammad Jalloh, 18, David Ture, 18, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be identified, all deny murdering David Gomoh and conspiracy to cause GBH with intent on another man who got away.
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow QC said Mr Gomoh was talking on the phone to his girlfriend when he was stabbed by Ture, Jalloh and the teenager, who had got out of a stolen Dodge Caliber, being driven by Mr Colubali.
Mr Glasgow said: “Both his carotid and his brachial artery were severed…There was no hope of survival and despite the best efforts of the trauma team who carried out emergency surgery in the road where he lay, he slowly bled to death in front of his horrified family.”
The prosecutor said Mr Gomoh “had the misfortune to live in an area of London that is frequented by rival gangs…who are involved in a violent feud with each other…rival gangs that like to brag about the devastation they have wrought upon each other.”
Mr Glasgow said: “David Gomoh was not in a gang and David Gomoh did not have any rivals but, for a few short and fatal seconds, David Gomoh became the focus of one of the gangs who were looking to even the score with their rivals.”
The prosecution claims all four defendants are part of the Northside Newham Gang and on the night of the murder had driven across the A13 - which marks an unofficial border - and into the territory of rival gangs from the E16 and E6 postcodes.
“This was a ride out into enemy territory and they were looking for someone, anyone, to attack,” said Mr Glasgow.
The prosecutor said Mr Gomoh worked for the NHS at St Bart’s Hospital in central London and he added: “He was described by his girlfriend and his family as someone who had no bad blood with anyone and who was ambitious to make something of himself.”
Mr Glasgow said the prosecution included scientific evidence against Jalloh and the teenager and a “visual confession” by Ture - a drawing he had made of the stabbing of Mr Gomoh which the prosecution claimed could only have been done by someone who had been there at the time.
Mr Glasgow said Jalloh, who was known by the streetname Mojo, and the teenager had both appeared in a video featuring members of the Woodgrange Gang and Chad Green Gang - both part of the Northside Newham Gang - in which they “boasted of their violent rivalry” with the opposition.
The trial is expected to last for four weeks.