Gun thug opened fire on taxi office and house

Two gangland shootings happened in Salford and Bury within months of each other with the same gunman pulling the trigger.

- ANDREW BARDSLEY

A GUNMAN opened fire at a home and a taxi office to send a 'powerful message, a court heard.

Drug dealer Aaron Gray fired at a taxi rank in Eccles, Salford, where a woman was working on a Sunday evening.

Months later, he shot at a house in Whitefield, Bury, through the living room window.

No one was hurt in either shooting, but the woman at the taxi rank has been left traumatised. "He's got a f***ing gun," she shouted, after she had walked to the door to investigate after hearing banging.

The occupiers of the house in Whitefield were upstairs at the time. Manchester Crown Court heard that the shootings were ordered by others. Judge Nicholas Dean KC said of the taxi rank incident: "It could easily have struck an individual."

Of the house shooting, which happened in the early hours, he said: "That was no guarantee that there was not someone who could have been hit. A high risk of death or severe physical harm must arise." He added: "Someone has been sent a powerful message, but in sending it those who are responsible for it are endangering life."

Prosecutors told how a woman was working at Swan Taxis in Eccles at about 10pm on December 8, 2019.

After hearing someone banging at the door, she went to investigate and saw a man armed with a gun. He fired and in her terror she fell backward. She was not hit by the bullet.