A reformed gang member has revealed how he was shot 27 times, and believes his ‘friend’ was the one who tipped off the gunmen to where he would be.
Darryl Laycock was a member of Manchester’s Doddington Crew and has been through it all as a gang member.
He’s lost family and friends, including seeing his father stabbed, and was shot 27 times in a piece of gang-related violence.
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Sitting down for a LADbible TV interview alongside Simeon ‘Zimbo’ Moore – himself a former member of notorious Birmingham gang the Johnson Crew – Laycock explained how a ‘mate’ may have been the one who told the gunmen where to find him.
You can hear his account of the story in the video below:
Laycock explained: “The first time I got shot I had just put down my machines and I was going to a girl’s house, going to this food shop first.
“I was riding in a park and I seen [sic] a man jump from behind a tree, so I leapt off the bike and let it roll towards him, turned around and [he] left off about 10 shots and he caught me underneath my foot and it came out the side of my leg.”
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He continued: “The second time I got shot I’d just been released that morning – I was arrested for a murder but released without charge – went to a pub in the night time and was walking back with a girl from the pub.
“I thought I was invincible."
“My mate was in a pub, he was drunk and saying ‘come out, I’ll drop you home’ but I was like ‘nah, nobody can’t f*** with me’.
“Then, apparently, one of my so-called mates phoned up the shooters and told them which way I was walking and that’s when I got shot 27 times.
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“The girl got shot, once in her chest and once in her hand, I threw her on the floor and I took all the shots.
“Someone put a gun near my head and let it off.
“I don’t know if they didn’t have the balls, or if the power of the gun just made it backfire, but the bullet just glanced off the side of my head.
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“I got up and walked – that’s all I was worried about, this cut [on my head].
“Getting shot back then, it was just like [an] occupational hazard.
“It was like we was [sic] going out to work and you could get shot, you could escape, you could shoot someone, you could end up in jail, it was just one of those things.
“It was just the luck of the draw whether you lived or died back then.
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“I’ve lost over 30 friends and family to murder, I know over 70 people that have been murdered.
“It was all bulls**t. No-one deserves to die over drugs, no-one deserves to die over women, no-one deserves to die over money.
“No-one should be killing each other over such stupid little things."
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Zimbo added: “In a sense, you have to realise that’s how it’s going to go, if I’m a bad man and you’re a bad man, and we’ve both got that bad man mentality, when we have a disagreement, the first thing we’re going to do is go to some bad man business.
“People were dying for their ego, people were literally getting killed and dying for their ego – everybody wanted to be a bad man, so nobody was going to take certain things, take certain disrespects or what even people believe to be disrespects.”
Nowadays, the pair have dedicated their lives to helping others avoid their path and making their mistakes.
After meeting in prison, they became friends and started to work within their communities to keep young people on the straight and narrow and avoid prison sentences or worse, death.
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The full interview with LAD TV can be found below:
Tom Wood