Would-be hitmen jailed after one accidentally shot the other

By Ed Chatterton

Two would-be hit men were forced to scrap a planned attack after one accidentally shot the other and ended up in the hospital.

Adam Liaqat, 19, and Asad Khan, 22, were sitting in a stolen 4x4 plotting a shooting when their firearm suddenly went off, leaving Khan with serious gunshot wounds to his leg.

The pair had parked in St. Paul’s Road, Smethwick, West Midlands, at around 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 23 last year when driver Liaqat fired the weapon by mistake.

Instead of carrying out their planned hit, injured Khan was forced to hail a taxi to the hospital, where he initially claimed he didn’t know what had happened.

Detectives from West Midlands Police’s Major Crime Team launched an investigation and uncovered the pair’s botched shooting plot.

Officers discovered the Mitsubishi Outlander the pair were using had been stolen the night before and fitted with false plates.

A search of Khan’s phone revealed messages suggesting he and Liaqat were on their way to carry out a shooting of their own before their embarrassing mishap.

Police later raided Khan’s home and found crack cocaine.

Liaqat was arrested days later after leading cops on a pursuit in a Honda Accord despite only holding a provisional license.

His passenger, Yakuba Sawaneh, 19, was with him when officers saw Class A drugs and a burner phone being tossed from the vehicle before it was stopped in Oldbury, West Midlands.

All three men went on trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court and were convicted in May.

Liaqat, of Sandwell, West Midlands, was found guilty of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and Class A drug dealing offenses.

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On Monday, he was jailed for 15 years.

Khan, of West Bromwich, West Midlands, was convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of Class A drugs and was caged for 13 years.

Sawaneh, of Perry Common, Birmingham, was found guilty of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply and jailed for 42 months.

Detective Constable Emily Fowler, of West Midlands Police, said: “Through our inquiries we established Khan and Liaqat were in the stolen vehicle with a gun.

“There were messages which indicated they were on their way to shoot someone themselves, although we don’t know who that was.

“At some point, while the car was parked, the gun has gone off and Khan has been injured and the inside of the vehicle damaged.

“Khan made his own way to hospital and we started to establish exactly what happened.

“The pair had clearly put in a lot of pre-planning and preparation as a gun and ammunition had been acquired, and a car stolen and put on false plates.

“However, it went wrong when Liaqat appears to have accidentally shot Khan.

“Lives could have been lost as a result of Liaqat and Khan arming themselves with a gun, including Khan’s own.

“Illegally owned weapons in the wrong hands can be extremely dangerous and it’s why we’re taking action all year-round to tackle gun crime and find offenders.

“It’s clear Liaqat, Khan and Sawaneh were all linked to drugs and he has also rightly been convicted for his illegal activity too.”