Man jailed 35 years for shooting dead teenager at London park

Aderahman Boumzough was jailed for 35 years at Woolwich Crown Court after a jury found him guilty of murdering Rene Graham and attempting to murder another man. The sentence, handed down on Friday, 3 July 2026, closed a case that laid bare how a children’s play area at a busy London park became the scene of lethal violence.

Boumzough, 25, of no fixed address, was convicted on 26 June 2026 after a two-week trial. Rene Graham, 15, was killed on 21 July 2024 at Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance Park in Ladbroke Grove, west London, shortly after 7.20pm, while a family music event was under way. Police said the teenager was shot in the chest and died at the scene.

CCTV captured the gunman walking calmly toward the play area before firing a single shot. The footage also showed Boumzough chasing a second victim and trying to fire again, but the gun jammed and the man escaped injury. The attack turned a public park, used by families and children, into a place of sudden and fatal danger in the middle of an evening gathering.

The Metropolitan Police said the investigation took more than a year and relied on help from the Ladbroke Grove community. Detective Chief Inspector Alison Foxwell led the inquiry. Boumzough was later arrested and charged in connection with the shooting, which police linked to both the murder of Rene Graham and the attempted murder of the second man.

Rene Graham’s death has left the focus not only on the offender’s sentence but on the vulnerability of shared public spaces when violence breaks through local routines. The killing happened in an area meant for children’s play, during an event designed for families, and it ended with one teenager dead on the ground and another man only surviving because the weapon failed.