The young girl was playing in her uncle’s shop in Stockwell when she was caught in the crossfire of a street gang shooting.
Three men from the notorious Gas gang – on a Scotland Yard list of 60 “high harm” gangs in the capital, and responsible for killing three teenagers in 20 months – were convicted of wounding Thusha and another innocent victim who happened to be in the shop at the time.
They are Nathaniel Grant, 21, Kazeem Kolawole, 19, and Anthony McCalla, 20.
Roshan Selvakumar, 35, had been buying groceries when he was shot in the face. He has been left with bullet fragments permanently lodged in his head.
Today, Thusha is paralysed from the waist down and spends much of her time at Stoke Mandeville hospital, Buckinghamshire.
The five-year-old will have to wear a brace and leg splints permanently, and will be reliant on a wheelchair for life.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the Gas gang rides around the streets between Coldharbour Lane and Brixton Road on pedal bikes, armed with knives and guns. Some members of the gang are as young as 12 and 13, according to the newspaper.
In court, prosecutor Michelle Nelson read out a statement on behalf of Thusha’s family.
“It’s hard for all at home to see an innocent child hopping around like a rabbit, now paralysed,” she read.
“[T]he impact of this incident remains unbearable to the family.
“[They] cannot begin to explain the shock felt at the time of the shooting … [and] that Thusha was lying on the floor crying and saying she couldn’t feel her legs.”
CCTV footage, below, shows the moment that Thusha goes from being a happy child skipping around the shop to lying wounded on the floor.
