One man cleared of murdering rapper gunned down outside Telford gym as jury told true ‘killers were not in the dock’
One of the four men standing trial for the killing of a drill rapper who was gunned down outside a Telford gym more than five years ago, has been cleared of murder.
Tamba Momodu, 20, a drill rapper also known as 'Teerose', was shot multiple times as he sat in a car with two other men outside The Fitness Factory at Bridges Business Park in Horsehay, on October 13, 2020.
Over the course of the last six weeks, a jury at Leicester Crown Court sitting at Loughborough Magistrates court were told by the prosecution that Momodu was killed in a “revenge attack” after being acquitted on the grounds of self-defence of the murder of Abdullahi Tarabi in Northolt, London in 2017 - brother and cousin to two of the defendants.
Mahamud Tarabi, 33, of Whiteleys Parade, Uxbridge, his cousin Ahmed Karshe, 31, of no fixed abode, as well as Deria Hassan, 33, of Greenford, London, and Merje Ngoy, 25, of no fixed abode, were all accused of murder but denied the charge.
All four have are also accused of torching the Skoda found burnt out near the Wrekin after the killing. Deria Hassan has pleaded guilty, the court heard, but the others all deny the charge.
This week, the jury was directed by Judge Sylvia De-Bertondano KC, to find one of the defendants, Merje Ngoy, “not guilty”, due to a lack of evidence of his involvement in the killing.
