£5,000 reward to help find BB gun attacker

Sep 21 2011 by Liam Murphy, Birkenhead News

A WOODCHURCH man confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the back in an unprovoked attack has offered £5,000 of his own money to help catch those responsible.

David Hazel, 42, was shot in an apparently motiveless attack with a ball-bearing gun outside his home as he left for work in 2004.

Mr Hazel now believes he was a victim of mistaken identity – that he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time – a mistake which has had devastating consequences for him and his family.

Since then, he has split with his partner of 12 years Patti and only sees his nine-year-old son Ethan at weekends or holidays.

No-one was ever prosecuted for the crime which destroyed his life and left him in constant pain. And, even though police made arrests after the attack, no witnesses ever came forward.

The attack happened on the evening of Friday, June 25, 2004, as the former soldier, who was then working as a delivery driver, got into his blue Ford Focus to head off to work.

The car with the attacker pulled up alongside him, the gunman got out and started shouting abuse at Mr Hazel after asking what he was looking at.

Mr Hazel crawled across to his passenger door and ran down a neighbour's path before the man shot at him with a BB pellet gun.

He spent months in hospital and was eventually found a new home which has been adapted for a wheelchair. But he still struggles with some basic tasks, and suffers spasms – one of which occurred as he was making coffee and left him with severe burns.

Mr Hazel said this summer the difficulties in spending time with his son had affected him badly, being unable even to enjoy a day out at Legoland because of the pain he was suffering.

He said: “Ethan is doing brilliant and I couldn’t ask for a better son. He helps me whenever he can. And Patti has been brilliant.

“I have been told the girl who was in the car has moved back to Woodchurch. But I’m hoping someone knows something because it must be all over the estate – maybe someone who would not come forward when it first happened will now.

“With the reward I’m going to put forward, I’m hoping someone will say what happened to me was not fair and come and give information.”

Mr Hazel said he wanted to offer his own money as a reward, as he had not heard of any developments in the case since four months after he was shot when an identity parade was held.

He said: “The fact that Patti and I split up I would probably put down to me being in the chair.

“We might have split up anyway. But the pressure Patti was under, what she had to do in helping look after me, was too much.

“When you see someone in a wheelchair you don’t think what he has to do, what pain he is in.”

Even though he cannot feel his legs, he still suffers pain from them.

He said: “Some days you wake up feeling pins and needles, or the whole of your legs are on fire, and normal pain-killers can’t do anything for it.

“It’s probably the worst pain I have ever felt.”

Details of the reward are still to be finalised but a police spokesman confirmed the case remains open. Anyone with information can contact their local police station or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.