Drill rapper ‘wore clown mask and waved shotgun during police chase’

An alleged gang member accused of brandishing a sawn-off shotgun at police during a chase is a drill rapper who featured in a song called Armed And Ready, a court heard
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An alleged gang member accused of brandishing a sawn-off shotgun at police during a chase is a drill rapper who featured in a song called Armed And Ready, the Old Bailey heard.

Lekan Akinsoji, 20, was wearing a clown mask when he was caught on camera holding a gun as he leant out of a passenger seat of a stolen BMW being pursued in Leytonstone by the Met’s firearms unit, it is said.

The car was rammed but did not stop and when officers believed they had been shot at, they repeatedly fired at the BMW.

Akinsoji, who raps as Cracky Blackz, was detained with Darnell Joseph-Newill, 21, Nathaniel Lewis, 23, and Troy Ifill, 22, when the car was eventually stopped on July 26 last year.

The driver was not caught. Prosecutor Anthony Orchard QC said the defendants had been looking for violence on a rival gang’s turf.

Akinsoji, of Dagenham, Joseph-Newill and Ifill, both of Stratford, and Lewis, of Forest Gate, all deny possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, conspiring to cause GBH with intent and using a firearm with intent to resist arrest. Lewis and Ifill also each deny possessing a firearm. The trial continues.

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