The National Crime Agency has captured and arrested David Ungi Jr. in Malaga after fleeing for seven years.
The 30-year-old is now wanted in connection with the murder of Vinnie Wadlington. Ungi is the son of a famous city figure whose murder seems to have sparked a gang war.
David Ungi Sr. was shot dead in the Dingle community, where he grew up, a turning point in Liverpool’s gangster culture. The 36-year-old man was a popular businessman and would know he was a marked man after a recent failed assassination attempt.
READ MORE: Wanted: David Ungi – the son of a city businessman whose death sparked a war on the streets of Liverpool
However, when he got behind the wheel of his VW Passatt on May 1, 1995, there was no indication that he was taking his last trip.
While his car was traveling on North Hill Street, a black Volkswagen Golf GTi suddenly crashed in front of his car and he was ambushed by an armed man. The killer fired a volley of ammunition from an automatic weapon, and the father of three was hit twice as he tried to escape, the fatal bullet severed a major artery and killed him quickly.
The crime remains unsolved to this day and is described as a turning point for Liverpool’s underworld.
Boiling point
As June seemed to turn, violence and tensions escalated, and Mr. Ungi’s family became increasingly upset by the fact that they could not let him rest. Relatives and friends told ECHO that his body could not be released until the killers were captured, as each defense team would need the opportunity to perform a second autopsy.
Toxtet has become a suitcase and the spark is the arrest of Mr Ungi Colin’s brother for possession of a firearm on Tuesday, May 30. Ungi’s home in Malta Walk, Toxtet, was searched early the next day and later that morning Colin was produced in the old Liverpool Magistrates’ Court building on Dale Street in the city center.
His lawyer, Julian Lincoln, told the court that Colin admitted to carrying a weapon when he was arrested while leading his 11-year-old nephew to buy a bicycle. But he said his client feared for his life after his brother’s murder and did not think the police could protect him.
Police at the scene of David Ungi’s shooting
He told the court: “This is proof of my client’s fear that he considered it necessary to carry a weapon in such an innocent expedition to buy a bicycle for an 11-year-old boy. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and was not carrying a pistol to carry out an armed attack, but to save his own life. “
According to reports at the time the bail was denied, members of the Ungi family shouted curses and four-letter words at magistrates – while some said “we have lost a brother”.
Streets of rage
That afternoon, violence erupted near Ungi’s home next to the Royal George Pub, locally known as Black George’s, where a gang used petrol bombs to set fire to three cars. According to an ECHO report at the time: “A man wearing a red sock mask was openly brandishing a gun.”
The incident led to chaos as riot police detained a mob of about 600, waving batons and shields. A firefighter responding to the fire was injured when the windshield of his fire truck was broken and another man was pulled out. from his car and beaten by masked men who stole his phone and killed his car.
Mr Ungi’s family said the disappointment had boiled over as a relative spoke to a reporter in front of the pub, saying: “Everything is back in court this morning. That was the problem. “
The next morning, ECHO also conveyed a request from Mr Ungi’s mother, Vera Ungi, “to end the madness”.
How ECHO reports the Tokstet riots on May 31, 1995, four weeks after the assassination of David Ungi (Image: Liverpool ECHO)
The 59-year-old then said: “What happened last night was very worrying and I would ask people to be calm. Violence does not bring anything good. I am horrified and devastated by everything that has happened. It makes me sick. it is not revenge in my heart, but a desire for peace. ”
Draw
The reasons for the murder and the ensuing months of violence are unclear. One theory outlined to ECHO reporters from underworld sources in the years after the crash was that it involved a dispute between Mr Ungi and a well-known local hardliner, Johnny Phillips, over a bar in Aigbert called Cheers.
A brawl was settled between the two men in Dingle, which was won by former Golden Gloves amateur boxing champion Mr. Ungi. Mr Phillips later claimed that the battle had been unfair and that his opponent had used a finger knife, and on 21 March 1995 Mr Ungi narrowly escaped with his life after being shot on Morton Street.
Mr Ungi Jean’s wife later said that her husband started wearing a bulletproof vest every night after he was shot, but for some reason he did not wear it on the night of his death. Following the June murder, Mr Phillips was charged with attempted murder in connection with the Morton Street incident, but the case was later dropped and he was not charged in connection with Mr Ungi’s death.
Whatever the truth, Mr. Phillips, a friend of the famous Toxteth drug lord Curtis Warren, was later found dead after suffering a heart attack. An underworld source said earlier: “Weapons are sometimes used as a last resort. Everything insignificant is usually settled by straightening (fist fight).
“But that’s not the case anymore. Some people use guns as soon as they fight. I know it’s because of women, because of gambling and even because of football disputes.”
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