The mother of a 14-year-old boy killed with a shotgun was trying to move him out of London because she feared he was being “groomed” by gangs.
Corey Junior Davis, from Newham, was shot in the back of the head in a playground on September 4 in what is believed to be a revenge attack over a stabbing at the Westfield centre.
A serious case review is being launched by Newham council after his mother Keisha McLeod raised concerns with police and social services for 18 months.
She was home-schooling him because she feared he was being targeted at a pupil referral unit.
Ms McLeod, 39, said: “We were waiting for a property to move out of London. There was gang grooming in the area. I brought it to the police’s attention and social services, but nothing was done. He was scared.”
Ms McLeod sent her son to live with her brother Carson Nolan, 46, in November last year but he returned to live with his mother in Newham in April after a new property in Barkingside was found by East Thames housing assocation.
However, the offer was withdrawn on July 7.
Ms McLeod, a psycho-social studies student at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: “My child was not a bad child. It is the area. I could not allow it [grooming] to occur. What hurts me the most is this could have been avoided.
"They offered me a property and took it back. My son could be alive if I had got that property.
“This is a 14-year-old child in a playground in the middle of the day. This is where he is supposed to be.
"When we were told about the Barkingside property, we were on the internet, looking at the house. It had a back garden where he was going to park his bike.
"He was so excited, looking up the school he was going to and five days later it was taken away. It broke my heart.”
Detective Chief Inspector Dave Whellams, of the Met’s Serious Crime Command, today condemned a “wall of silence” over the killing and the wounding of a 17-year-old as it emerged that a stolen Range Rover Sport with fake numberplates was used by the killer.
He said: “The suspects got out of this vehicle, shot the lads and drove off. We don’t think CJ was targeted, or his friend.”
The silver Range Rover sport was stolen from Balham around 10 days before the shooting.
DCI Whellams said the original licence plate of EY11 XSG had been switched, and the car was captured on CCTV before and after the attack, which took place at 3.08pm, being driven “erratically” as it raced away from the scene.
Yvonne Arrowsmith, chief executive of East Thames, said: “Due to the danger Corey faced, we offered the family a temporary property outside of London.
"In July, we offered the family another property but later withdrew the offer as the property wasn’t, in fact, available.”
A Newham council spokeswoman said: “Corey and his family were known to the council. A serious case review will be carried out.”
