The shooter who left fragments of a bullet embedded in his victim’s skull has been jailed for more than 28 years.

Zain Shah was just 21-years-old when he fired at Waris Kayani at point-blank range from the driver’s seat of a stolen Audi A3 in St Mildred’s Avenue, Luton, last September.

It followed a tit-for-tat dispute that began with a road rage encounter three days earlier and saw Shah’s own Vauxhall Insignia damaged by a rival group on the afternoon of the shooting.

Now 22, Shah told jurors at Oxford Crown Court last week that he had intended to shoot the crowbar from Mr Kayani’s hand. He had found the gun in the door of the stolen Audi and was unaware it was loaded, he claimed. The weapon has never been recovered.

He was unanimously convicted on Monday of attempted murder.

LUTON 'SHOOTING' READ MORE

Sentencing him to 28 years and 10 months’ imprisonment on Tuesday, Judge Michael Gledhill KC rejected Shah’s suggestion that he did not know when he acquired the Audi that the loaded handgun was in the vehicle.

He told the defendant: “You knew perfectly well it was there and you were prepared to use it if necessary.

“You were intent on revenge on the man who damaged your car. You were not only prepared to use violence but were prepared to use the gun in self-defence or as necessary.”

Judge Gledhill added: "I do not accept you have any remorse. If you had, you would have pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

"What else could you have intended but to kill Mr Kayani when you shot him in the head from a few feet at most? As the jury's verdict underlines, you intended to kill him."

Oxford Mail: Zain Shah's police custody shotZain Shah's police custody shot (Image: Bedfordshire Police)

During the trial, the court heard that the dispute that ended in the shooting began some three days earlier, on September 20, when a friend of the victim Imran Hussain and a sister of Shah’s friend - a man known on the street as 'Big Billy' - were involved in a traffic ‘stand-off’.

Neither were prepared to back down, with the woman allegedly asking ‘do you know who my brother is?’

Vehicles belonging to both sides were said to have been damaged on the day of the shooting. Mr Hussain was also assaulted in front of his two-year-old son and his vehicle smashed up.

Addressing the background to the violence, Judge Gledhill concluded: “The shooting in the head of Waris Kayani was the culmination of a feud between two criminal gangs living and operating in Luton.

“Whatever illegal activities these gangs were involved in, both were ready to use violence, even extreme violence, as and when it suited them.

“The gangsters had no respect either for persons or property, and they considered themselves above the law.”

Following the verdicts on Monday, defence counsel Ashraf Khan said his client, who was still very young, was remorseful for the situation he had put himself in. He had chosen not to name the man from whom he had got the Audi as he did not want to get others in trouble.

Despite a difficult childhood, Shah had managed to obtain nine GCSEs before dropping out of a business course at college in favour of a career in property and car rentals.

Shah, of St Winnifreds Avenue, Luton, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to wounding with intent, possession of the firearm, possession of ammunition without a certificate, criminal damage and possession of a machete found in the dumped Audi getaway car.

Judge Gledhill imposed a 28 year jail sentence on the attempted murder and added a further 10 months for the machete, telling the defendant: The possession and use of knives is now commonplace on the streets of our towns and cities.

“Parliament has said that these offences should attract immediate custodial sentences in order to deter others from carrying them with all the dangers that ensue.”

Read more from this author

This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward