Hitman “gunned down wrong father and son” in Holloway, court hears
Ahmet Paytak - Credit: Archant
A crazed gunman opened fire on a father and son – killing the dad – after mistaking them for another father and son he was hired to kill in a gang “revenge” attack, a court heard.
Ahmet Paytak and family - Credit: Archant
Shop workers Ahmet Paytak, 50, and his 21-year-old son, Huseyin, were shutting up Euro Wines and Food when two men pulled up on a motorbike before one stormed in opening fire four times.
But alleged hitman Ricardo Dwyer, 27, had been paid to attack a different father and son who also worked in the Hornsey Road store, Holloway.
Edward Brown, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: “There was another father and son pair who worked in the shop.
“They were the intended targets, not Mr Paytak and his son who were caught up quite by chance in what was by then a dreadful and deadly feud.
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“Mr Paytak was truly in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Dwyer is alleged to have opened fire in the shop while fellow rider Michael James, who has since been convicted for murder, waited outside.
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Mr Paytak was shot in the stomach and died from internal injuries while his son’s thigh bone was fractured by a bullet in the incident on March 22, 2009.
Mr Brown added: “The evidence is plain that this was nothing less than a killing to order – a ‘hit’.
“It was revenge, planned and quickly put into place just that evening.
“As sometimes happens when there is a calculated and cold blooded killing, the hired assassin was acting on instructions – and doing so no doubt for nothing more than money.”
Mr Brown said the feud which sparked the alleged hit begun two months earlier between two rival Turkish gangs known as the Hackney Turks and the Tottenham Turks.
The long-running row started after a fight which broke out in Hackney nightclub Manor House, in which its owner – Kemal Armagan – had been injured.
Believing the son of the owner of Euro Wines and Food – Mehmet Senpalit – to somehow be responsible, Armagan ordered a hit on him and his father, the court heard.
But Mr Paytak and his son were mistaken for the pair. “[They] were no part of the feud at all,” Mr Brown added.
Armagan remains on the run and wanted by police. Dwyer denies charges of murder and attempted murder. The trial continues.
