News / Crime
Men jailed after dumping loaded gun in alleyway during police chase
Two men have been jailed after being convicted of possessing a prohibited firearm.
Zachariah Talbert-Young and Paul Hayden had both denied the charge but were found guilty following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Talbert-Young, 26, of Carlyle Road in Easton, was sentenced for five and a half years; and Hayden, 21, of Reade Close in Hanham, sentenced to five years.
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On October 5 2021, police received a number of calls reporting sightings of people armed with a gun and a knife in Easton.
After a man called 999 at about 9.45pm and said he had met a group of people earlier that he thought had a gun, police officers attended and began to search the area.
Three men ran off from them with one running down an alleyway off Chaplin Road.
Just after 11pm, officers found a Nike bag containing a handgun in the alleyway near to an electricity substation.
The gun was found in an alleyway off Chaplin Road in Easton – photo: Avon & Somerset Police
The gun was a 9mm Parabellum self-loading pistol which was loaded with four rounds of ammunition and had been made ready to fire.
Forensic tests of the weapon recovered DNA of both Hayden and Talbert-Young from the grip, with Talbert-Young’s DNA also found on the working parts of the gun as well as on the bag it was found in.
Avon & Somerset Police detective inspector, Jason Chidgey, who led the investigation, said: “Thankfully, gun crime is a rarity in the UK.
“It’s all the more shocking that two young men were able to get hold of a banned weapon like this. Hayden was 18 and Talbert-Young 23 at the time.
“Bristol is a safer place with this weapon and these people off our streets.”
Main photos: Paul Hayden (left) and Zachariah Talbert-Young (right) – photos Avon and Somerset Police
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