Cops hunt for gun used in brutal killing of Olivia Pratt-Korbel as sniffer dogs scour street
ANTI-gang police officers yesterday flooded into the street where Olivia Pratt-Korbel was killed in a bid to find the murder weapon.
Dozens of cops from the crack Matrix squad arrived with sniffer dogs for painstaking searches lasting several hours.
One resident speculated cops investigating the nine-year-old’s killing may have received fresh information overnight.
The local in Dovecot, Liverpool, said: “They turned up in several vans and all piled out.
“It’s the largest police presence we have had here since last Monday when she was killed.
“They were looking under cars and in gardens and it seemed like they were looking for something specific.”
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It came as underworld sources revealed those who ordered the botched shooting of burglar Joseph Nee — which left Olivia dead — are feeling “the heat”.
A source said: “This should have been a gang-on-gang strike and, instead, a child has lost her life.
“The people who organised it are furious the gunman has turned this into Britain’s biggest murder hunt and they know anyone involved is facing life in prison.
“Phone numbers are off, handsets are being destroyed and people are taking sudden holidays to get themselves away from the police attention.”
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Merseyside Chief Constable Serena Kennedy urged the public to tell detectives who ordered the hit, who supplied the gun and who fired it.
A video appeal also warned that anyone withholding information from police is protecting the killer.
The voiceover states: “We’ve got parents who’ve lost their children.
“We’ve got a nine-year-old girl who won’t celebrate her 18th birthday.
“She won’t celebrate her wedding. She won’t have children of her own.”
Tragic Olivia was remembered yesterday in church services across Liverpool.
Two men, aged 36 and 33, arrested on suspicion of murder have been released on bail, with the older male returned to prison for breaching licence conditions.
Officers in the city also want more information about the murder of Ashley Dale, 28, gunned down in her home in Old Swan early last Sunday.
Police also issued an appeal over two men seen on electric bikes close to where Sam Rimmer, 22, was killed in Dingle last Tuesday.
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Officers investigating the murders have arrested 170 people and seized two firearms in the past week.
They also received more than 280 reports from the public on gang members.
