His heartbroken mother Melanie Jones, 41, broke down in tears as she spoke of her son, “her baby”, and asked the public for help. "I walked to the car park where he was shot. He was just lying there in a pool of blood.
"They tried for an hour and a half to resuscitate him. But his little body couldn't take it. He'd lost too much blood."
Her son was shot dead after being hit in the neck in a pub car park in Croxteth, Liverpool.
Mrs Jones said: “Our son was only 11, our baby. This should not happen, this should not be going on. Please help us. I just want them caught. “We would just like to put an appeal out. Please, someone, somewhere must know who has done this. It’s got to be someone on the estate. Please come forward.
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TRAGIC: Rhys Jones, who was gunned down
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"Somebody knows who has done this. It will happen again. My baby was only 11. He didn't deserve this. Give yourself up. He was shot in the back of the neck. He was shot from behind. My baby."
Rhys’s father, Stephen, 44, a retail manager with Tesco, spoke lovingly of his football-mad son.
He said: “We are devastated, we have lost our world, the world has lost a good guy.
“He was football-mad, absolutely football-mad, a season ticket holder with me, his brother. We go to every home match and they looked forward to it. “Football was his life. If he wasn’t watching it, he was playing it. If he wasn’t on the PC playing it, he was on the X-Box playing it. He saved his pocket money for his kit.”
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Somebody knows who has done this. It will happen again.
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Distraught Mr Jones, who continued to speak of his son in the present tense, went on: “We then got taken to the bereavement suite. You go to see him, you hold him and cuddle him. The guy’s only 11, he’s only 11.
“I then go to his room where he should be, he should be asleep, open his wardrobe, his school uniform that we have bought for senior school, his pens and pencils, are there unopened. His calculator is there unopened, his shoes are still in the box, his trainers are still in the box.
“It’s just horrific, your worst nightmare.
“Whoever has done it, they just need to be caught,”
Mr Jones added: “I would never, ever want to put anyone through what I went through last night, walking into that trauma room, seeing my son in pools of blood, fighting for his life. It’s not real, it’s not on.”
Mrs Jones said that when she got to the car park of the pub she was unable to get any response from Rhys.
She said: “He was unconscious, he did not come around after that. He was just lying there in a pool of blood. They put him in an ambulance. They tried for an hour and a half to resuscitate him but his little body could not take it, he had just lost too much blood.”
Mr Jones added: “People are saying to me ’Wrong time, wrong place’. It shouldn’t be a case of wrong time, wrong place. It shouldn’t happen in this country.
“Somebody out there knows who’s done it.”
Mr Jones told how he heard the news that his son had been shot. “Last night, when I was on my way to work, I got a telephone call from my wife.
“I thought pellet gun, whatever.
“I turned around and got to Croxteth Park and there was police everywhere. I thought ’God, what’s happened here?”
Mr Jones mistakenly went to the wrong hospital before travelling to Alder Hey where doctors were desperately trying to save his son’s life.
“I then got to Alder Hey and went in to the major trauma room,' he added. "There was my son lying on his back, bleeding, trying to be resuscitated by the doctors there.
“They did a fantastic job but he’s gone.”
Merseyside Police have arrested two teenagers, aged 14 and 18, on suspicion of murdering the youngster. They are being questioned by detectives in Liverpool.
Meanwhile, the leader of Liverpool City Council called for a “summit” of all major cities to be held with the Home Secretary to discuss ways of tackling gun crime in the wake of the Rhys Jones shooting.
Warren Bradley also called on the local community to help Merseyside Police catch those responsible.
Mr Bradley said: “This is an issue that all major cities face and we must come together to try and find solutions to this problem.
“I am requesting a summit consisting of community leaders, police, emergency services and reformed criminals of all major cities to be held with the Home Secretary to find solutions to the issues we all face.”
Video 
RHYS JONES
24.08.07, 6:36pm
My heart aches for the parents and brother of this poor little boy. My sincere sympathies to relatives and friends of Rhys.
I am afraid the softly, softly approach to these youngsters when they are just starting to offend only ensures that they think they can get away with anything. They are told repeatedly that they have rights but no-one adds on that with rights come responsibilities.
What I cannot understand is where these guns come from. Since they were banned ? we seem to have had more crime involving small fire-arms than we ever did before.
What the government should be doing is stopping these weapons from entering the country, Oh, but I forgot, they cannot stop humans from entering illegally, so what hope is there of that happenning.
Well Mr Brown and cohorts, you better get your finger out and do something, not just new laws, because they will only fall flat .As they will be challenged by some legal eagle with nothing better to do than look for loopholes.
We always say that some-one might help the police to stop this but a lot of folk are too apathetic and shrug their shoulders. WELL SHAME ON YOU, REMEMBER YOU COULD BE NEXT ! ! !
• Posted by: marhart • Report Comment
RHYS JONES
24.08.07, 4:57pm
This family look so decent and caring, what a shame they've lost their son in this way. Why on earth don't these thugs shoot each other, not innocent children? Whoever is hiding this nasty thug should be shot too, and as the boy's mother said 'Somebody knows who killed my son'. Good luck.
• Posted by: kathiebat • Report Comment
GOVERNMENT'S EMPTY PLATITUDES DON'T CUT IT!
24.08.07, 1:08pm
Many more of our children will be murdered by handguns and other heinous means before this perverse and immoral government does anything. Gratuitous platitudes are the New Bolsheviks answer to everything that ails this nation; moreover, it seems many gobble up their unceasing, leftist twaddle.
This government does not give a damn about the law-abiding citizenry; only the so-called social fringe, the alleged minorities, when, in fact, it is we, the aforementioned, whom are the true minority.
Their solution, if one may call it that, will be to blame the “haves” (who have less and less at every turn) for the ills of the “have nots” (who have more and more at every turn; thanks to the so-called “haves”). Hence, our pay packets will shrink even more-so; for pouring the so-called “haves” money into the proverbial blackhole is the New Bolsheviks solution to all that ails this once great nation.
This fetid welfare state has rotted out; accountability will be held over the heads of those whom contribute to our society and pay taxes. Taxes, which maintain the already rancid and decomposing status quo – it pays to be idle, criminal and self-entitled.
Our loathsome government does not give a damn about Rhys Jones and other children who have fallen victim to so-called gun-culture. Their solution, as always, will be some politically-correct gibberish, which, in the end, will be meaningless drivel and accomplish naught.
My prayers go out to the Jones Family and others whose children have been murdered.
• Posted by: misanthrope • Report Comment
"SOMEBODY KNOWS WHO KILLED MY SON"
24.08.07, 10:34am
My sincere condolences to Mr & Mrs Jones on the lost of their son.
I feel so sad for you both.
How many more of our young will die so senselessly before something is done to stop the gun culture breeding in our society?
May Rhys Rest In Peace with the angels. x
• Posted by: Sue1423 • Report Comment
MEDIA COVERAGE
24.08.07, 8:39am
WILL THIS SAD EPISODE RECEIVE HALF AS MUCH FRONT LINE COVERAGE BY THE MEDIA AS THE McCann storey VERY UNLIKELY AND VERY UNFAIR. Will people donate as much to a fund to apprehend the criminals.THIS DESERVES JUST AS MUCH IF NOT MORE PRESS REPORTING.
Condolences to Mr ans Mrs jones and R I P Rhys.
• Posted by: RobertG • Report Comment
IMMIGRANTS
23.08.07, 11:21pm
First I would like to express my sympathy to the parents, relatives and friends of Rhys Jones.
I agree someone must know and I also agree that many if not most of the guns coming into this country illegally are from Eastern Europe but that does not mean an immigrant pulled the trigger. Most of the rest of the world including the ex-eastern bloc has a culture based on family values, it is much more likely the murderer/s is/are home grown.
• Posted by: ricardo • Report Comment
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