Getaway driver Michael Rungen, of Weston Drive, was part of a three-man assassination squad that waited outside a takeaway in Leeds
Getaway driver Michael Rungen, of Weston Drive, was part of a three-man assassination squad that waited outside a takeaway in Leeds on April 20, 2007, before opening fire on father-of-six Rohan Ricketts. As Jamaican born Rohan left the takeaway with his regular chicken and chips supper, he was confronted by three masked men armed with a knife and two semi-automatic pistols – a 9mm converted Russian-made Bailkal gas gun and a .32 calibre CBC. The gang fired two shots which hit a wall. Rohan, 34, fled inside the Shahjahan take-away were he vaulted the counter in an attempt to escape - the staff were hiding in a store room. The murder squad followed him inside and shot him in the chest, stabbed him in the neck and hit him over the head with a frying pan - four shots were fired in the restaurant.
Rohan, of Leeds, died at the scene before police arrived. Rungen, 34, was sentenced to a life sentence for his part in the murder last Tuesday, December 16, at Sheffield Crown Court. He is the only member of the group to have been brought to justice, but police are vowing to track down the two remaining gunmen.
Detective Superintendent Steve Payne, of West Yorkshire Police's Homicide and Major Inquiry team, described Rungen as an "unemotional, ruthless killer". Rungen was eventually caught after a Vauxhall Astra caught on camera parking in a nearby street was traced to him. Traces of blood and gun residue were found inside the vehicle. A search of his parents' home also recovered ammunition of the same calibre as that used in the shooting. Rungen had already spent nine years behind bars for his part in a £20,000 pound robbery in which ammonia was sprayed in the face of a security guard at a sub-post office in 1998. Jailing him, Justice McKinnon told him this was a professional, cruel execution done as part of a carefully planned operation."You all knew and intended the objective, namely to shoot Rohan Ricketts dead. You were clearly a knowing party to the killing. "You were the getaway driver and probably the lookout. I have only one sentence I can pass laid down by law. It is one of life imprisonment and that is the sentence I pass," he said. Rohan's mother, Marlene McCleod, said: "Sean (as Rohan was known to his family) was a wonderful son to me, the perfect brother to his siblings and an excellent father to his children. "There is not a day that goes by where Sean is not in our thoughts and we have been left with a great big whole in our lives. We miss Sean's smile and jokes, but most importantly we miss his physical presence. I would not want any other family to experience the heartache we have been through. We were so close and I miss him so much, he was a wonderful precious son." It took a jury of six men and six women four hours to find Rungen guilty of the killing after a two-week trial. He will have to serve a minimum of 30 years before he is even considered for parole. The jury also found him guilty of two charges of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, two charges of using a prohibited weapon and one of possession of ammunition.
CCTV footage of the group milling around the street before the attack has now been released by police in effort to catch the final two killers. Det Sup Payne said: "I think they were watching him, they pursued him inside and showed him no mercy."
The motive for the killing is suspected to be territorial infighting between Yardies from Jamaica and local gangs. Yardie Rohan had already survived two previous assassination attempts before he was finally killed.
