Shock as new figures reveal huge 38 per cent rise in firearm offences recorded in South Yorkshire

Concerns have been raised about the number of firearm offences being committed in South Yorkshire, after new data revealed there has been a shocking 38 per cent rise in the number of offences recorded over the last year.

This comes as five men aged 43, 29, 28, 24 and 21 were arrested on suspicion of firearms offences, after police carried out a search at an address on Monday, July 24, 2023, resulting in a police presence being seen on and around Coleridge Road in the Darnall area of Sheffield in recent days.

The figures have been released by the Office for National Statistics in recent days, covering the 12 months from April 2022 to March 2023, compared to April 2021 to March 2022, across South Yorkshire.

In total, the number of firearm offences recorded by South Yorkshire Police (SYP) jumped from 242 in the year to March 2022, to 334 in the year ending March 2023.

South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, said firearm offences were therefore the crime area for which he had 'the most concern'.

"This is an increase from 242 offences to 334. This is higher than the 22 per cent increase in the Yorkshire and Humberside region and much higher than the figure for England and Wales as a whole at 13 per cent. This is concerning and illustrates the importance of the work that the police Armed Crime Team is doing," said Dr Billings.

The crime commissioner also noted that it is 'not easy to compare a post pandemic year with a pandemic year and hard to draw many conclusions from them'.

South Yorkshire Police's Armed Crime team launched in Sheffield in 2020 in response to what Detective Superintendent Paul Murphy described as a 'slight increase' in firearm discharges. The team has since been extended to cover the rest of the South Yorkshire district.

A spokesperson for the force said earlier this month, on July 3, 2023, that the number of firearms discharges being reported had increased, and in response, SYP is 'taking a coordinated approach to find those responsible and bring them to justice, and disrupt the activities of organised crime groups'.

Assistant Chief Constable Dave Hartley added: “Recently you may have seen more information on our channels about firearms discharges and how SYP is tackling them within each district of South Yorkshire. This is purposeful.

“We are not looking to raise fear of crime within our communities, what we want to do is ensure you know what is actually happening in your area and to encourage you to work with us to tackle it.

“We are clearly seeing far too much of this type of criminality and it will not, and cannot be tolerated. While we will react swiftly to safeguard people at risk, and investigate these incidents, often what we lack to bring the offenders to justice is information – and we believe the community may hold it.

“There is no doubt we will tackle this issue, and with every discharge we see, we will seek to flood the area with specialist officers, combing every inch of the crime scenes and working relentlessly to find those responsible.

“What we don’t want to see is innocent people being hurt, and we need to get to those involved before further discharges happen. If you know something, have any information no matter how trivial you think it may be, please get in touch. If you don’t feel comfortable talking directly to the police, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously – we will get that information and be able to act on it."

The Star has reported on nine shootings since the beginning of this year, one of which sadly proved fatal.

Abdullah Hassan, aged 25, was killed in the Callow Drive area of Gleadless Valley at around 1.30am on Sunday, April 9. Efforts were made to save him but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A post mortem examination revealed he died as a result of a single gunshot wound.

Abdullah is not the only person to have lost his life to gun violence on the streets of Sheffield in recent months. Just under 16 months ago, on March 29, 2022, Lamar Leroy Griffiths was shot dead as he sat inside his friend's car as it was parked in a car wash on Burngreave Road, Burngreave.

After his shocking death, his heartbroken mum, Monique Bate, revealed that he had been on his way to visit his grandma when a gun was fired at a car his was inside at the time.

In March 2023 Abdul Hakim, then aged 24, of Spring Lane, Sheffield, and Nasser Nashir, then aged 32, of Kirton Road ,were both charged with assisting an offender in connection with Lamar's death, but no-one has been charged with his murder.

Anyone with information on any of the gun violence referred to in this article should contact SYP on 101. Call 999 in an emergency.