Man victim of 'cowardly attack'

Dimitri Foskin lived nearby with his mother, police said

A young man shot dead in a city centre was the victim of a "cold-blooded, cowardly attack", police have said.

Dimitri Foskin, 24, was shot in the chest in a driveway outside a house in Newtown, Birmingham, on Saturday night. He was pronounced dead at hospital.

Witnesses have reported two figures, one chasing another, running through Hockley Close minutes before his death.

West Midlands Police believe the shooting may be the latest in a series of gang-related incidents.

Five similar shootings, although not fatal, have taken place in recent weeks.

We will not tolerate this behaviour in the West Midlands Police area, in our cities and our towns Assistant Chief Constable Suzette Davenport

In addition, one man, Matthew Sutherland, was stabbed to death outside a Birmingham nightclub on 17 August while Marlon Morris was stabbed in Wolverhampton over the weekend.

Mr Foskin lived with his mother in Guildford Drive, 200m (656ft) from where he was found in Hockley Close.

'Happy and carefree'

He had been socialising with friends and cousins shortly before he was shot.

He was last seen alive in Kensington Street, meeting friends, at about 2145 BST and had seemed "happy and carefree", police said.

At 2200 BST people reported hearing a loud bang followed by a scream or a shout.

Thirteen minutes later police received a 999 call from someone in Hockley Close, who told them a man was lying on the ground.

He was taken to City Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Mr Foskin's uncle, Merlin Flaherty, 51, said Dimitri was a "loving person".

"He loved his family, loved his mum, loved his sister, loved everybody.

"He always had a smile on his face."

'Safety assured'

Det Ch Insp Richard Baker, who called the killing a "cold-blooded attack", said he could assure people of their safety if they came forward to talk to police.

On 26 July a drive-by shooting took place on the Belgrave Middleway. No-one was injured.

Another drive-by shooting, on Monument Road on 5 August, has left a young man critically ill in hospital.

A week later, another man was injured in a shooting in Raleigh Close and two more people, a man and a woman, were injured at a christening party at the Irish Centre in Digbeth on 17 August.

Assistant Chief Constable Suzette Davenport said there had been a number of serious incidents in the city resulting in serious injuries and the deaths of young men in Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

"We will not tolerate this behaviour in the West Midlands Police area, in our cities and our towns.

"We are doing absolutely everything we can to stop these incidents happening," she said.