There is a history between Damien Cope from Peckham and Andrew 'Sparks' Wanogho from Lewisham. Andrew Wanogho, who went to Feltham Youth Offending Institute at an early age, already had a formidable reputation by the age of 16. He was renowned for his fighting ability and even bullied UK Cage Rage champion Lee ‘Lightening’ Murray. When he came out of prison it is alleged he started a career of crime in a range of offences including burglary and thefts of computers and micro-chips from BT buildings. Damien Cope was also said to be a criminal in his own area of nearby Peckham, although he went to college and aspired to make something of himself. Cope also made money from dealing drugs.
Andrew who was also involved in drugs is said to have fallen out with Cope for unknown reasons. Cope had allegedly made substantial wealth from dealing drugs and at a young age had acquired for himself an Audi TT and top of the range BMW. On one occasion Andrew confronted Cope, Cope didn’t want to fight as he had a leg in plaster, nonetheless Andrew knocked him out. Cope and his friends then set about murdering Andrew and shot him in the lung and buttocks, the attempt was unsuccessful. Andrew wanting revenge conspired with four other males, including two brothers, to seek revenge on Cope. The men, all of whom were leading members of the Ghetto Boys, travelled to a club in London where they knew Cope would be. Using a female who had gone along, she phoned Cope whilst he was in the club offering him sexual favours to entice him outside. Cope then went outside the club where it is claimed Trevor Dennie, an associate of Mark Lambie (
Tottenham Mandem), shot him and inflicted the fatal wound. Police, knowledgeable about the bitterness between Cope and Andrew, focused their efforts on pinning the murder on Andrew.
No one could have appreciated the far-reaching effect Damien Cope's murder would have when he was shot dead outside a nightclub in 2002. In 2004 after a long and frustrating police investigation, the man alleged to be the killer was brought to justice, however, the case against him was to end with howls of anguish. Damian Cope, 22, was believed by police to be a member of a street gang based near his home in Peckham and mixed up with firearms and drug dealing. The events in the run up to his death begun on the morning of Sunday 29th July when he had been playing football near his home in Burgess Park. Following the game he was involved in a confrontation at the park with a man from a rival group, the Ghetto Boys, and threats were exchanged. It had followed the attempt on Andrew’s life.
Later that evening Damian and his friends had gone clubbing in Holborn central London. CCTV shows Damian arriving there with a big smile on his face at 12:35am and a few minutes later he was pictured exiting the club to make a phone call. Whilst he was outside out of the range of cameras he was shot in the stomach by a bullet from a converted handgun and picked up again on CCTV after he had staggered back to the nightclub stumbling through the doors. The video showed one of his friends spotting Damian clutching his chest, his friend caught him as he collapsed and he died later in hospital.
Later that friend told Damian's grieving mother that he had asked Damian "who blazed you blood?", to which he said that Damian named the killer as Sparks, the man who had confronted him earlier that day in Burgess Park. Damian's friend confirmed the name to police but refused to repeat the name to detectives, allegedly out of fear or because he did not like talking to police. Without a statement detectives were stuck, and although they had later learned Sparks had planned to attend the club that night no-one had reported seeing him there and there was no video or mobile phone evidence that could have placed him there.
Seven months following the murder another of Damian's friends came forward to police saying that he had named the killer giving the Trident detectives justification to arrest Sparks who was 24 at the time. However, Sparks had fled to America, breaching a bail order he was under for burglary, and inquiries drew a blank. It later emerged that Sparks was a keen boxer and fought professionally under the name Weston. A Trident civilian worker discovered him boxing under the name Andrew "The Assassin" Weston in Florida. He had fought 5 fights winning all by TKO in Coconut Creek. Trident contacted US authorities and put together an extradition order so that he would be arrested and deported. He was arrested in the US in July 2003 just as he was about to step in the ring for a boxing match in Fort Lauderdale and extradited to the UK to be charged with murder.
When it came to the trial there were some issues and complications that were detrimental to the evidence and strength of the case. Damian's first friend still refused to give evidence leaving the case dependent on one witness who was also refusing to be named or come to court to give evidence, furthermore there was doubts about what he had told police. CCTV footage showed the second witness going to Damian seven minutes after he had collapsed whilst the doctors who had examined Damian's body suggested that his wound was so severe that it would have been unlikely that he could have been capable of conversation after that amount of time. Further doubt came from a club bouncer who had been with Damian after he collapsed who stated that Damian had not uttered a single word during that time.
The judge formally declared Sparks not guilty and said he would be freed on bail awaiting trial on the outstanding burglary charge. He grinned as he left the dock. Prior to his release detectives warned him, as they are obliged to under the law, that a threat had been made against his life. They offered him protection, as is required, to which he declined
Despite the negative portrayal of Sparks, he was a certified “Hood Legend” across London, “everyone from the ends used to wanna be like Sparks, talk like Sparks, walk like Sparks, dress like Sparks”. He was loved by as many as loathed him, he was real “he had it all Gucci, Armani, Rolex’s, fresh to death at all times...plus he had the streets shook, just mention his name”. Even for the disenfranchised youth he is a better role model than today’s “gangsters”, there was no need for guns and knives, his hands were his weapon. People like Sparks maintained order in London’s gang areas.
In April of 2006 Andrew Wanogho was himself shot dead on a Brockley street in Lewisham south east London. Trident detectives had been investigating the murder of who they called a notorious drug dealer, murderer and kidnapper for eight months without getting anywhere significant, and then in November 2006 the murder weapon was discovered when a teenage boy set off for school telling his mother not to look in his room. Whether it was something in his tone or just a mothers instinct she ignored him and went on to find the gun hidden in a toy safe, it was loaded with three live rounds.
Up until the find the detective was dealing with a case fraught with difficulties. At 26, the victim was running a syndicate of teenage armed robbers who would also do his drug running. The inquiry provided police a better insight into a criminal sub-culture that exists cheek by jowl with ordinary families in deprived neighbourhoods including class A drug dealing, the reach of the criminal networks, kidnappings, sexual violence, extortion and witness intimidation.
Sparks was seen as a protector by some but a mercurial and extremely violent man by others. A pentecostal pastor described to the 350 people at his funeral how he would push his disabled brother to church each week in a wheelchair. A relative of Sparks, Peter Buahin and his friend Orville Davidson were also murdered the previous year both in shooting incidents on the nearby Woodpecker estate. In August 2005, Sparks survived an assassination attempt as he left a courtroom where he had watched a girlfriend plead guilty to possession of one of his guns in order to save him from jail. Eight months later he was not so lucky.
The detective was convinced that the hit on Sparks in April 2006 was organised by a Belmarsh prison inmate on a smuggled mobile phone which later investigations revealed had been used to make 17,000 calls in seven months. Officers spent months scanning the mobile phone records until a pattern emerged. It was later learned that a prisoner named Delphon Marvin Nicholas had made a flurry of calls in the run up to Sparks death. These calls were to his best friend and alleged gunman, rapist and drug trafficker named Trevor Dennie, both men had fallen out with Sparks in disputes over women and drugs and Dennie had had enough.
At 1:30am on the 8th of April 2006 Sparks stepped out of a car, driven by his friend Sean Albert, outside Delphon's former girlfriends house and Albert drove on up the road from the house to wait. As he pulled up a few houses down the road he heard a series of gunshots in rapid succession before noticing Sparks in his rear view mirror sprinting up the road back towards the car. As he reached the car his heart was pierced by a bullet that had hit him in the back and he fell to ground. On his body police found a £17,000 diamond encrusted Cartier watch and £1.11 in cash.
Whilst police recovered the bullets the closest they came to the gun was a witness who had described Dennie brandishing it over his head at an east London nightclub a few hours later boasting that he had killed Sparks. Eight months later the gun was found hidden in a 14 year old boys bedroom. It had passed through several hands by then and was believed to have been used in seven other shootings which included an attempted shooting of a police officer in Brockley Cross. The boy had been ordered by an older to stash the gun.
Nicholas and Dennie were sentened to life imprisonment for the murder after the court heard how Nicholas had arranged for Dennie to kill his former friend and associate from prison using a smuggled mobile phone. Nicholas, 29, of Sydenham and Dennie, 24, of Deptford were sentenced to serve a minimum of 30 years in prison. The three men had been long-time associates however a rift occurred between them and escalated until the decision was made to kill Sparks. Nicholas had previously fell out with Sparks over a drug deal that went sour and the two had a fist fight which Sparks won. In a further reprisal Sparks had robbed Nicholas' father on Valentines Day 2006. Dennie had also fallen out with Sparks after his mother Susan gave a statement to police about Damian Cope's murder.
Exhaustive studies of the mobile phone painted a vivid picture of the plot taking shape with hundreds of calls and texts being exchanged between Dennie and Nicholas as they planned the days and hours leading up to the shooting.
Dennie, the gunman on the night, was operating under the direction of Nicholas who had been communicating with him from Belmarsh Prison. Dennie knew what the victim's movements would be on the night of the murder and waited for Sparks at the venue. Miss Sereata Barrie, 29, was believed to have played a role in the murder acting as a "Honeytrap" luring Sparks to his death. At court she denied that he had been going to her home in Brockley for sex and said instead that he was going there to pick up a kilo of cannabis. The prosecution believed she had been involved in the set up.
Miss Barrie, who has an 11 year old daughter, admitted to having had sexual relationships with all three men involved in the case (Sparks, Dennie and Nicholas) in the past and also admitted plans to make pornographic films . Under cross-examination she had admitted being used for sex by all three men however when questioned on the mobile phone calls made during that day she denied that they were regarding sex and instead claimed they were about the kilo of weed Sparks wished to purchase.
It was claimed that Nicholas persuaded his ex-girlfriend Miss Barrie to lure Sparks to an ambush outside her house in Brockley. Barrie, an aspiring rapper who described herself as 'La Femme Nikita' was cleared of murder by a jury but not before Nicholas had repeatedly punched her while sitting next to her in the dock.
you cant make this shyt up
the nicca was talmbout feds don't carry guns and i made a post refuting that...your dumbass response has the purpose of what exactly?...explain this to me
that nypd carries big guns?
