Olivia Pratt-Korbel was scooped up by police and taken to hospital after being shot, as an officer tried to save her by using his hand to cover the chest wound, an inquest has heard.
The nine-year-old schoolgirl died after being attacked by a balaclava-clad gunman who chased another man into her house in Liverpool at around 10pm on Monday 22 August.
Armed officers who attended the scene in Dovecot “scooped and ran” with Olivia to get her to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the back of a police car, while an officer covered the bullet wound with his hand.
She had a weak heart which had stopped before she arrived at the medical centre in an officer’s arms at about 10.15pm, the court was told.
Olivia went into cardiac arrest and in spite of “extensive efforts” she could not be resuscitated.
The senior coroner for Liverpool, Andre Rebello, said medical teams had met Olivia as she arrived and a major trauma call was put out.
Cardiac massage and a rapid blood transfusion were given to Olivia, but at 11.15pm she had no cardiac output, the coroner said.
“At 11.25pm, after extensive efforts by all involved, the decision was made to stop resuscitation and Olivia was confirmed as having died,” Mr Rebello said.
A post-mortem examination found her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, he said.
The shooting happened 15 years to the day since the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones in Liverpool, and Mr Rebello, who also dealt with the 2007 killing, called the latest deadly attack “heinous and unforgiving”.
Mr Rebello told the court in Liverpool that it was “quite shocking that society has not changed for the better”.
Opening and adjourning Olivia’s inquest, the court heard that the schoolgirl had been identified by her mother’s fiance.
Rhys Jones
Mr Rebello said “there must be people in the city and elsewhere who know precisely by what means Olivia died and further who was responsible”.
He continued: “Parents expect to bury their own parents but not their children.”
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The schoolgirl became the third person in Liverpool to lose their lives to gun violence in a week.
During the 30-minute hearing, Mr Rebello also opened and adjourned the inquests of the two other victims.
The Gerard Majella courthouse heard how mechanic Sam Rimmer died in hospital on 17 August from a gunshot wound to the chest after being fired at “numerous times” by two males on electric bikes in Dingle.
Mr Rimmer was hit “at least once” after he and two other males “chased them initially”.
Ashley Dale, a 28-year-old environmental health officer, died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen after police found “several casings” from “multiple rounds” fired in her backyard in Old Swan on 21 August.
The coroner adjourned all three inquests until 4 January.
He released the victims’ bodies to their families so that their funerals can take place and he urged anyone with information about the three active homicide investigations to contact police.
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Emotional church service for Olivia
Olivia’s mother, Cheryl Korbel, was injured after the same bullet struck her in the wrist before fatally wounding her daughter who was standing just behind her in their Dovecot house.
The masked killer then fired two more shots at the intended target, 35-year-old Joseph Nee, inside the home before fleeing on foot.
Joseph Nee
Nee was injured and his associates took him to hospital as the mother and daughter lay wounded.
The gunman had put his hand through the doorway of the property in Kingsheath Avenue as Ms Korbel tried to ram it shut, and he opened fire.
Moments before, Nee had barged his way into the house to try to escape the attacker when he saw the door open by Ms Korbel who had heard a commotion outside.
Olivia’s killer is still on the loose as Merseyside officers continue to appeal for information.
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Sniffer dogs at Olivia murder scene
Over the weekend, police investigating Olivia’s death released on bail two men who had been arrested and questioned on suspicion of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
They were a 36-year-old man from Huyton and a 33-year-old man from Dovecot.
The 36-year-old has been recalled to prison after breaching the terms of his licence.
Nee will also be recalled to jail for breaching the terms of his release.