Gunmen face life imprisonment for shooting 15-year-old Michael
Two gunmen face life sentences for killing an innocent schoolboy as he slept in his bed.
Michael Dosunmu, 15, died after being sprayed with bullets from a Mac-10 sub-machine gun. He had been sleeping under a duvet in the bedroom he shared with his older brother Hakeem when the two gunmen burst in.
Mohammed Sannoh and Abdi Omar Noor had gone to the house in Diamond Street, Peckham, south-east London, to kill Hakeem and left without realising they had killed Michael by mistake.
Michael was hit by four bullets - one of them fatally piercing his heart - in the early hours of February 6 last year.
Hakeem, 26, who had fallen into bad ways after finding life difficult when he left the Army, had been out at a club where he was trying to sell drugs when his church-going brother perished.
Sannoh, 19, of Peckham, and Abdi Omar Noor, 22, of Camberwell, were found guilty of murder and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey today.
Hakeem’s links to a robbery gang and the murder of one of the crooks led the gunmen to his door.
Hakeem was sentenced to two years jail in April for his part in the security van robberies.
The judge reduced the sentence from five years after hearing that he blames himself for Michael’s death.
The court was told he “carries around with him the thought that it should have been him”.
Michael’s devoutly Christian family said they were standing by Hakeem.
Father Rasak said: “Presently, he is feeling guilty that he brought all this on us.
“But this is not the way we brought him up. He is our son, we love him. We cannot discard him. He made a mistake in life.”
Michael had been staying at the house with his 20-year-old sister Shakira while their mother was in Nigeria, and their father was in hospital.
Hakeem had not been home for a few days.
Miss Dosunmu told police she was woken by the sound of gunfire. Then her bedroom door was forced open and she saw a man wearing a green army jacket with a scarf over his face.
She said she hid under her duvet “terrified”. She did not move until she heard Michael gasping for breath.
Michael’s mother, who like her daughter is called Shakira, wept as she left court.
She said she held no grudges against the gunmen. “I have forgiven them from the bottom of my heart.
“They must reform their lives and then good luck to them.” she said.
