William Cox

William Cox was shot in his home in Fenwick Place, Clapham on Valentine’s Day 2007.

He had earlier been in Acre Lane, Brixton and left there at 2.36pm to go home. He was later caught on CCTV with two other men walking along Landor Road in Clapham at 2.55pm, heading home. When his 12-year-old sister came home after leaving school around 3.30pm she heard a bang and when she went in, she found William Cox shot in the chest in his bedroom. He died in his sister’s arms. A friend gave William Cox some first aid and he was still alive when the ambulance arrived, and he was also treated by paramedics but died at the scene.

His post-mortem result stated that his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest.

He was thought to have been affiliated to the South London gang the Clap Town Kids. The gang was said to have recently saved up some money between themselves and bought a gun for £450 which they shared amongst about 20 members aged between 15 and 19 years old.

At the time of his murder he was electronically tagged after being served a supervision order for a burglary offence that had started in December 2006 and was under a 7pm to 7am curfew.

Police said that the back door to his maisonette was open but that there was no sign of a forced entry and it was possible that he might have known his killers. They said that it was possible that he had been robbed of drugs or money beforehand.

The police added that the Clap Town Kids were not known as a major player on the gangs’ scene.

It was said that up to three youths had come into the house and shot him.

William Cox had earlier been beaten up by six gang members in November 2006 near his home and had also been assaulted on another occasion.

Police also later found video footage that had been sold on DVD around the area in which some youths boasted about attacking him a couple of weeks before he was murdered. The DVD was entitled Enter The Streets Vol I and included footage of a youth in a grey hooded top surrounded by seven or eight other youths who shouted We bust Remz's head. Remz was William Cox's street name. The DVD which was said to have sold well included footage of a youth unloading a handgun and cradling the bullets with his hands. Police said that they thought that the youths in the video were members of the Stick Em Up Kids gang.

It was also thought that he might have been targeted because he had been involved in an attack on a member of the Stick Em Up Kids gang. The attack had resulted in a member of the Stick Em Up Kids gang being stabbed in the leg, although it was said that William Cox, although he was there, had not taken part in the assault.

It was also noted that before his murder he had been arguing with another youth on his mobile phone. The argument was said to have been in relation to cussing each other on text messages.

In 2011 one of the suspects in his murder was caught with a loaded and cocked Walther P38 9mm self-loading pistol by police after he had fired it twice outside the Jackets baked potato shop in Clapham High Street. After firing the shots, he had fled but when he was passed by some police in a van, he had tried to hide it under a car. The man had been arrested on suspicion for the murder of William Cox but not charged. It was said that the man had been in contact with William Cox by telephone 900 times before his murder. He was sentenced to 12 years for possessing the gun with intent to endanger life.

In February 2019, the police released CCTV footage of William Cox walking with the two men in Landor Road, Clapham and walking into Fenwick Place around 2.55pm which was near the time that he was murdered. The police said that the footage showed William Cox walking nearest to the road in the group of three men. They said that they thought that they knew the identity of the man in the middle but were trying to identify the man furthest from the road, walking by the building. The police said that the man was light-skinned, wearing a dark coloured top, dark coloured trousers with a white stripe down the side and wearing white trainers. They said that he was also carrying a distinctive white shoulder bag.

On 25 June 2019 the police announced that they had arrested two men on suspicion of his murder but nothing more is known about that.

William Cox was also known as Billy Cox.