This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A 19-year-old has been charged with the murder of a 20-year-old man who was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting metres from his home.

James Teer, 20, was killed after a single shot was fired in Goosemoor Lane in Erdington, Birmingham, at about 7.20pm last Thursday, the postmortem examination confirmed.

Officers had initially detained Sharn Miles, from Alum Rock, on Tuesday in Birmingham city centre, West Midlands police said. On Wednesday he was charged after questioning.

The force said he has been remanded in police custody to appear at Birmingham magistrates court on Thursday, but continued to appeal for any information which could assist with their inquiries.

“James’s family have said that they can’t comprehend what’s happened or understand why anyone would want to harm their son,” said DCI Scott Griffiths.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A photograph issued by West Midlands police of James Teer.

“The motive is still unclear so I ask anyone who knew James or has heard any conversations that might help explain what happened to get in touch. There will be people in the community who know, or suspect, why this has happened.”

On Saturday, several shots were fired and a man was attacked with a machete in Birmingham in what police described as a “truly outrageous” outbreak of targeted gang violence in a residential area in Saltley, following earlier disorder.

There was a 53% increase in the number of police firearms operations in the West Midlands between 2016-17 and 2017-18, with 3,312 armed deployments during the 12-month period.

Fifteen lethal firearms were handed in to West Midlands police during a two-week amnesty led by the National Ballistics Intelligence Service between 20 July and 4 August.

Chief constable Andy Cooke, the national police lead for serious and organised crime, warned in December that police and border officials were struggling to stop a rising supply of illegal weapons entering Britain. He feared it would continue in 2019.