YouTube war of words resulted in scenes of terror outside mosque

A WAR of words between two drill rappers on YouTube led to scenes of terror at a place of worship.

- By ADAM EVERETT

Chris Beya, aka “Crashbandit” traded figurative shots online with Rashan Hamilton, known as “R1”, before ambushing him with an imitation firearm.

The terrifying assault came as the victim left a mosque following afternoon prayers.

Their dispute is said to have formed part of a wider rivalry between the “Lodge Lane” and “Berkley Crew” gangs of L8, with the two men having links to a spate of cruel street robberies and even murder cases.

Liverpool Crown Court heard last week that the incident in November last year came against a background of “ongoing tensions” between the “Lodge Lane and Berkley Crew organised crime groups” in the Toxteth area.

Beya and Hamilton were described as opposing members of the rival gangs, with the former having uploaded a series of drill videos to YouTube under his Crashbandit alias, in which he referenced “gang violence and gun crimes” in Merseyside and the “ongoing dispute between the two groups”, from July 2024 onwards.

Nardeen Nemat, prosecuting detailed how both men would use each other's monikers in diss tracks which they posted to social media.

In one, entitled “Shh”, the 23-year-old defendant “made references to gang rivalries and the criminal use of firearms”, with his lyrics including: “R1 got run off the block, same way he got run out of Birmingham too”.