The family were targeted in a planned attack on their Walsall home while their children slept – but ‘don’t know the reason why’
BirminghamLive
09:28, 17 May 2026
James Gray (L) and Sharif Cousins (R) were both jailed for their roles in a shooting
A family spoke of their ‘constant fear’ and desperation to move out of Walsall after a 2am shooting while their children slept.
The victims, including two kids, were targeted in a planned attack involving an ex-Burger Bar Boy. A revolver bullet pierced through the kitchen window in the middle of the night, ending up in their pantry cupboard.
A second ‘warning shot’ was fired at the car parked on their driveway. Since the incident on May 26 last year, they have been left living in fear, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Read more: Birmingham killer who pushed man down nightclub stairs jailed for six years
This week, two of three men involved in the shooting were jailed at the court. Both had been convicted of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Former gang member Sharif Cousins, 50, of Chester Road, was jailed for 12 years, with an extended three years on licence as he was branded ‘high risk’. Cousins previously held a gun to a police officer’s head and has convictions for drugs, burglary and robbery on his record.
Getaway driver James Gray, 28, of Minstead Road, was jailed for nine and a half years. He had previously stabbed a man in the back, the court heard.
During the sentencing, the prosecutor read out the victim impact statement. The wife, and mum of the two children, said: “I’m constantly nervous and scared. I don’t know what these people are capable of or what they may do next.
“I’m scared to close my blinds when I’m cooking in the kitchen, I’m scared someone is outside my house.”
Sharif Cousins.
“I’m constantly imagining scenarios, I constantly fear for my family. My children don’t now go and play outside. I worry that my kids may be targeted by these people.
“We are scared in our own home and are looking to move out of the area.
“I feel we will be living in fear for a long time. We don’t know the reason behind this.”
Judge Dean Kershaw said it “may have only been luck that no one was killed” during the incident.
Sentencing, he told Cousins and Gray: “Shots were fired at the window of that house which went all the way through to a pantry cupboard, where someone could have been getting a midnight snack, or one of the parents getting a snack for their child, who knows.
“They would have been dead.
James Gray (Image: WMP)
“You did not know where they were walking, they could have been seriously injured or killed.
“At the time of the incident, there was a family and children. You both have children and one of them could have been killed.”
Judge Kershaw told the pair they were “both involved in, without any doubt, a clearly thought-through, planned and dangerous enterprise.”
The court heard Cousins intends to appeal his sentence as he ‘protests his innocence’. Gray does not accept having prior knowledge of the planned shooting, only that he was the driver of the car involved.