Britain:A man was last night under arrest over the murder of a young pregnant woman who was shot dead at point-blank range at her home in southwest London. The man, aged 40, is understood to be local and to have handed himself into police.
Six-weeks pregnant Krystal Hart (22) was shot twice in the head on Friday morning, after a gunman broke down the door of her flat in Battersea and opened fire. Officers and paramedics were called to the upstairs flat in a Victorian semi-detached house shortly after 11am, but Ms Hart was pronounced dead at the scene.
A man was seen fleeing the area, a wealthy suburb inhabited by mostly professionals and young families, in a car, prompting police to begin a nationwide hunt. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "A 40-year-old man this morning attended a south London police station and was subsequently arrested in connection with the investigation." Police have halted the search, but last night they appealed for help in tracing a black Volkswagen Golf, registration J326 KCK, which they think was abandoned after the killing.
Ms Hart's mother, Deborah Penfold, yesterday paid tribute to her daughter, a former secretary in the civil service who had been looking forward to starting a new family. "No words can describe the depths of our despair at the sudden and tragic loss of a most precious and beautiful young woman," she said in a statement.
"Not only have I lost my daughter but I've lost my grandchild in the senseless and tragic murder of a young woman in the prime of her life. We thank the police and local community for their sympathy and support. We need time and privacy to begin to make sense of this incomprehensible loss of life."
Police initially said the killing may have resulted from a row over parking, but later shed doubt over that scenario. They continue to believe, however, that the killing could have been the result of a neighbourly dispute.
Before yesterday's arrest Det Chief Insp Colin Sutton, who has led the Scotland Yard investigation, said: "Whilst we continue to investigate the possibility that the murder could have been the result of a neighbour dispute, we no longer believe that this was over a parking matter. It seems it was just a very disproportionate escalation of some sort of dispute."
Reports suggest a man wielding a handgun entered the flat demanding to see Ms Hart's boyfriend - with whom he had quarrelled shortly before the shooting - and shouted: "Where is he?" Ms Hart's downstairs neighbour, Angela Brewer, dialled 999 after the shooting. She is not being treated as a suspect and assisted police in their search for the suspect, who she knew, officers said.
Armed officers stormed a near-derelict address several hundred yards away that police believed was connected to the suspect. Officers are inspecting CCTV images from cameras inside Ms Hart's flat and directly above the porch to her front-door, which had been installed by her stepfather, Clive Lawrence (50), after the feud with a neighbour escalated.
A white tarpaulin yesterday remained above the doorway to the entrance to Ms Hart's flat, as officers continued their analysis of the scene.
- (Guardian service)