New arrests after dad shot dead near his children

Two people have been arrested a year on from the murder of a young dad shot dead close to his terrified children.

Three men have already been jailed for life for the murder of 36-year-old Rikki Berry in Kirkby on 17 July 2024.

But Merseyside Police said the investigation remained ongoing and exactly 12 months later have arrested a man on suspicion of murder and a woman on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Mr Berry was standing in the front doorway of his partner's house on Quarryside Drive when 27-year-old Michael Smith pulled up on an electric bike at 18:30 BST and fired four shots.

His 13-year-old son and four-year-old daughter were playing inside the property when Mr Berry, nicknamed Nuggy, was hit.

The court heard one bullet passed through the house and lodged in one of his son's football trophies.

In a victim impact statement read in court the boy asked Smith and his accomplices, 26-year-old Adam Williams and Connor Walsh, 27, how it felt to know "I had to watch my dad die".

They were convicted of murder and related offences at Liverpool Crown Court in February.

Smith and Williams received life sentences with a minimum term of 31 years, while Walsh received a 30-year minimum term.

Merseyside Police said on Thursday that the new suspects, a 24-year-old man from Ormskirk and a 45-year-old woman from Kirkby, remain in custody for questioning

Det Insp Graeme Osborne said: "Offenders should be assured that we will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to take their weapons off them and that time is no barrier in our efforts to bring people to justice.

"Information from the public is an absolutely crucial part of our work to protect our communities from the fear and harm weapons can bring and we appeal to anyone who has information on where weapons are being stored, carried and used to come forward."

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