Richard Austin, 19, and Carlton Alveranga, 20, were killed with their own guns in a hit gone wrong in a Salford pub as shocked punters described a ‘wild west’ shootout
Two hired assassins walked into a pub but never returned in an ‘wild west’ shootout that remains unsolved to this day.
Richard Austin, 19, and Carlton Alveranga, 20, were carrying handguns and had been recruited, or possibly ordered, to carry out an assassination in the Brass Handles pub in Salford. Moments after they burst into the pub, where regulars were watching Manchester United’s victory over Newcastle on a busy Sunday lunchtime on March 12, 2006, they were disarmed and shot dead with their own guns.
Shocked punters described it as a ‘wild west’-style shootout. The would-be hitmen were shot with their own guns and staggered out of the pub outside onto the grass, where they collapsed and died.
An unknown individual ripped out the CCTV system in the moments that followed. Hundreds of people were said to have been inside the pub, but none would speak to the police, reported Manchester Evening News.
A few years later, the unremarkable flat roof pub in the Pendleton area of Salford, where artist LS Lowry would once reportedly would enjoy a quiet pint, was demolished. No-one has ever been brought to justice for the killing of Alveranga and Austin. They had been put up to the task by Ian McLeod, who had parked up close to the pub in his Ford Mondeo.
Despite seeing the injuries to to the two men he had hired, McLeod is reported to have asked of the targets: “Are they dead yet?” before he calmly drove away. McLeod had himself been hired by Salford gangland boss Bobby Speirs, who is said to have paid him £10,000 for the hit. Speirs fled to Spain just days after the incident, but was extradited back to Britain and jailed for life in May 2009.
The hit was targeted at Speirs’ rival David Totton amid a spiralling personal feud. Prior to the shooting, Totton had been refused entry to a Manchester nightclub, and had told the bouncers he was a friend of Bobby Speirs. The doorman brought Speirs to the entrance, but claimed he did not know who Totton was.
In the weeks that followed, Totton started drinking in Speirs’ local The Brass Handles in an apparent attempt to agitate him. An angered Speirs then hatched a plan to have Totton killed, through McLeod.
When the 19-year-old and 20-year-old hired guns entered the pub, they located him in the snooker room and fired six times into Totton’s chest before Austin’s gun misfired and they were overpowered by other drinkers. Totton, who was with a group of friends, was seriously hurt but survived the attempt on his life. Another man, Aaron Travers, was also hit, after jumping up and taking two bullets meant for his friend Totton.
The killer of Austin and Alveranga, both from Moss Side, has never been found. In court, their deaths were said to have amounted to little more than “collateral damage” as far as the organisers of the assassination plot were concerned. The pair were also described as “potentially dispensable” to those who ordered the hit. The Brass Handles pub, a reputed former drinking spot of artist LS Lowry, was demolished a few years after the incident.
