Burngreave: Men and teenager shot and stabbed to death remembered in heartbreaking playground memorial

Their names have been emblazoned on a playground shelter, with the moving quote “Time passes but memories never fade”.

The tribute is well known in Burngreave, where it takes pride of place in the Nottingham Cliff recreation ground.

Tragically, all the murder victims featured had a link to the Sheffield suburb.

Elsewhere at the ‘rec,’ more street art on what was once a blank wall bears the message “Put down the knives, put down the guns. Stop the violence”.

The recreation ground was the place where 16-year-old Jonathan Matondo was shot dead in what police believe was a deadly feud between two between two warring postcode gangs – known as S3 and S4 – operating in Burngreave and neighbouring Pitsmoor at that time.

Jonathan was an S3 gang member and known to have carried a gun and a blade. He was known as ‘Venomous’ on the streets.

Although nobody is behind bars for Jonathan’s murder, detectives revealed what they believed happened to him when they charged a suspect soon after the killing and he was prosecuted.

He stood trial twice, with the jury unable to reach a verdict after the first trial and finding him not guilty after a second.

One the day he was killed, there had been another attempt to kill Jonathan a few hours earlier when shots were fired at him as he visited a friend’s flat.

Detectives said they believed that Jonathan’s murderer did not act alone and was that the teen was killed as part of a pre-planned plot. Police chiefs said Jonathan was ‘targeted and ruthlessly killed’ in an ‘organised and planned attack’ and that officers would ‘relentlessly pursue’ those involved.

Forensic work established that the gun used to kill Jonathan had been used to fire at another S3 member's home two months earlier.

Detectives believe the teen was targeted in retaliation for a shooting at a house belonging to relatives of an S4 member the night before the murder.

Who were the others named on the tribute?

Lester Divers:

Twenty years ago, Sheffield was shocked by a gangland execution which led to an outpouring of grief for the well known victim, Lester Divers.