'No surprise' at party shooting

By Duncan Walker
BBC News

Much of the Wood dene block is now boarded up and empty

That a woman was shot dead on their estate as she held a baby elicits little surprise among residents of Wood Dene in London's Peckham.

It is a particularly nasty attack, they say, but among the condemned flats and dilapidated landings surrounding their homes, crime is never that far away.

"You see kids with drugs" volunteers one man, while others are scared by the gangs of youths hidden by bad lighting.

Some are more sanguine: "You get the yobbos. But it's not like you can't walk round without getting mugged."

'Spray pattern'

A blue tarpaulin now hides the entrance to the estate's community centre - forensics experts ducking inside to carry out their investigation.

You ignore everything that's going on, close your door and try to forget it Wood Dene resident

Police were called here at 2000 BST on Saturday, after a christening party was gatecrashed by gunmen, who opened fire before making off with handbags, mobile phones and wine.

The victim, 33-year-old Zainab Kalokoh, died in hospital. The baby she was holding - who was not her own - was unhurt.

Denise Brown, who lives in a flat overlooking the community centre, says the thing she finds most shocking is that she was completely unaware of the shooting until she saw it on the news.

"You ignore everything that's going on, close your door and try to forget it," she says of life in one of the 300-odd Wood dene flats.

The mother of an eight-year-old girl, she is fed up with the youths who congregate between the blocks and "make noise until 4am" and the general lack of security.

'Worst time'

Ms Brown's unease is shared by another woman, who asks not to be named. "This is a bad place to live, it's so unsafe - there are guns and drugs all around," she says.

Police are searching the centre where Zainab Kalokoh was shot

"There's not much light at night... the winter is the worst time - there are groups just hanging around."

Part of the problem, says Vicky Idiegbe, from the Wood Dene Project Community Group, is that the estate is being slowly closed down, so that it can be redeveloped.

"Many of the flats are becoming derelict, and are now being filled up by squatters and junkies, the lifts don't work, and people are scared to walk around at night," she says.

'Normal estate'

Elsewhere in Peckham signs of regeneration are easy to find - with rows of smart houses, new shops and fashionable restaurants - all clues to the money coming into the area.

These signs of change are largely missing in Wood Dene, but there are still residents who say that say people are too quick to jump on the estate's obvious problems.

Residents complain that some empty flats are used for drugs

"People make out it's like World War III here, but it's a normal estate like any other in the country," says 52-year-old Kevin Donavan. "I have not really come across any trouble and I have been here since I was a kid."

His view that demolishing Wood Dene will not end the problems associated with it is shared by John Oldbrook - whose house faces the estate from the other side of the street.

Pointing down the road, he indicates a couple of flats used by prostitutes and then, turning the other way, indicates the scenes of other shootings.

As with many other inner city areas across the country, Ms Kalokoh's shooting is not the first Peckham has seen and is almost certainly not the last.