Qualla: Murder of Rhys Jones

Murder of Rhys Jones: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Rhys Milford Jones had a season ticket at Goodison Park, kept alongside his father's and his older brother's. He was eleven years old. He played football. On the evening of 22 August 2007, he was walking home from training across the car park of the Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, in north Liverpool, when a teenage gunman on a silver mountain bike fired three shots into a dispute he had no part in. One of those shots killed him. He never reached the rival gang the gunman was aiming at, because the gunman never came close to hitting them. Rhys did. He died on the tarmac, two miles from home, in his football kit.

Read more: Murder of Rhys Jones on Qualla

Murder of Rhys Jones: Rhys's Family

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Rhys was the second-born son of Stephen and Melanie Jones, and the younger brother of Owen, born in 1990. The family lived in the Norris Green area of Liverpool. The Jones household was a football household: Everton, Goodison, the season-ticket ritual that ties families together ...

Read more: Murder of Rhys Jones on Qualla

Murder of Rhys Jones: The Investigation

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Detectives initially arrested and released four people aged between 15 and 19. The killer's name was reportedly known on the streets - written in graffiti, circulated on the early Liverpool internet - but witnesses were terrified to speak. The breakthrough came eight months later...

Read more: Murder of Rhys Jones on Qualla

Murder of Rhys Jones: A City in Grief

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Liverpool grieved together. Everton players laid floral tributes, football boots, and shirts at the scene. At Goodison Park on 25 August, three days after the shooting, the home crowd applauded for a full minute before kickoff against Blackburn Rovers. Three days after that, Live...

Read more: Murder of Rhys Jones on Qualla

Murder of Rhys Jones: Liverpool Cathedral, and What Followed

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Rhys was buried in a private ceremony on 6 September 2007. The funeral service at Liverpool Cathedral drew more than 2,500 people. His family invited the public to come and asked them to wear bright clothes or football strips - not black. Steve Jones read a poem he had written fo...

Read more: Murder of Rhys Jones on Qualla