Man Faces Life in Jail for Joint Enterprise Murder of London Drill Rapper 16Shotz

Two defendants who admitted running after victim acquitted

An undated image of Salem Koudou, a drill rapper known as 16Shotz, who was stabbed to death in Brixton, south London, on Aug. 20, 2020. Metropolitan Police/PA

A man has been convicted of murdering a drill music performer who drove a stolen car onto the territory of a rival gang in south London, crashed it, and then attacked a rival rapper with an “enormous knife.”

On Wednesday, a jury found Darius Kwakye, 29, guilty of the murder of Salem Koudou, 20, who was better known on the streets of south London by his drill name, 16Shotz.

The trial at the Old Bailey was set amid the background of a bitter war between gangs who use drill music to goad and threaten rivals and brag about acts of violence.

Two other men—Donte McCalla, and Tristan Bullock, both 21—were acquitted of murder.

Bullock’s brother Yaseen, 20, was convicted of murder at an earlier trial.

On Aug. 20, 2020, Koudou and two other members of the Stockwell-based All ‘Bout Money (ABM) gang, in a stolen VW Golf, entered the Angell Town estate in Brixton where members of the 150 gang were celebrating the birthday of Tyreicke Williams, a rapper known as Stickz.

The Golf crashed into Kwakye’s Mercedes car and then turned over and the other two men who came with Koudou ran away. Police later found 14 live rounds of ammunition in the Golf and believe one of the other ABM men had been armed with a gun.

Koudou, who was armed with a Black Panther machete with a 45 cm serrated blade, got out of the overturned car and ran after Williams, stabbing him.

But prosecutor Oliver Glasgow, KC, said the “tables were turned” on Koudou as up to 15 young men began running after him and chased him off the estate, across the main Brixton Road, and into a cul-de-sac.

Kwakye, McCalla, and Tristan Bullock were among nine men identified on CCTV footage as having followed Koudou into Wynne Road but the actual killing was not caught on camera.

Glasgow told the jury: “He was stabbed more than 30 times and the injuries he sustained were catastrophic. His lungs, liver, and stomach were damaged by the knives that were used to stab him, and the blades were wielded with such ferocity that some of the wounds were as deep as 14 cm, others damaged the bones of his rib cage, and one went through his skull.”

Glasgow said the ABM and the 150 gang, and their allies the 410, “enjoyed taunting and attacking each other when the opportunity arose” and he added, “Salem Koudou intended to ensure that Aug. 20, 2020, was to provide such an opportunity but … his plan did not work out as he had hoped.”

Among the agreed facts in the case was a drill music video, released on Sept. 17, 2020, in which Yaseen Bullock was referred to as a “flick-knife pro.”

Murder Charge on Basis of Joint Enterprise

All three defendants were prosecuted on the basis of joint enterprise, a controversial legal protocol that critics claim has led to more than a thousand people being wrongly convicted of murder.

Last month the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies published a report that said “a thousand people were convicted of murder or manslaughter as a secondary suspect in the ten year period to 2020” and “those from minority ethnicity communities, particularly the black community, are consistently over-represented in joint enterprise prosecutions.”

At the start of the trial Glasgow told the jury: “You will need to decide whether or not you are sure that these defendants killed Salem Koudou. This is likely to be the central dispute in the case and the extent to which any of the defendants played a part in the attack [either as an attacker or as a willing supporter] will be for you to determine.”

During the trial all three men gave evidence and while they admitted they had run after Koudou, they denied they intended him any harm.

Asked by his barrister, Jenny Dempster, KC, why he had run after Koudou, McCalla said: “I don’t know. I was curious and wanted to find out what was going on.”

She asked him why he had run down Wynne Road and he replied: “Because the people ahead of me ran there and I was curious.”

Tristan Bullock also said he was just an interested observer and denied helping the killers by moving a post office trolley to block Koudou’s escape.

At one point Bullock said, “I stood and watched it, just like the witness watched it,” referring to a woman who gave evidence during the trial.

He also refused to name some of the other individuals who were caught on camera but who have not been identified by the police.

Two other men are due to go on trial in January 2023 for their alleged part in Koudou’s murder.

PA Media contributed to this report.