Would-be assassin whose gun jammed is jailed for 28 years

Motive behind shooting remains a mystery because nothing was stolen, police say

A would-be assassin whose gun jammed as he opened fire on a woman while she watched TV has been jailed for 28 years.

CCTV footage showed Lithuanian Martynas Okmanas calmly walking up to her front door after watching her husband leave for the school run.

As he walked through the doorway, the mother of two – fearing it was a robbery – threw a Rolex watch towards Okmanas in a desperate bid to get him to leave.

But, without saying a word, he pulled a handgun and opened fire as she sat in the living room of the home in Solihull, West Midlands, on 18 December last year.

The first shot hit the 51-year-old in the left shoulder and embedded in a wall.

The second bullet went through her hand as she tried to fend him off, at which point it is believed the gun jammed.

The woman seized the opportunity to flee to the safety of a neighbour’s house, while Okmanas ran to a waiting black BMW.

Detectives traced the black BMW, which had false number plates, to Northamptonshire and tracked it as it was driven on to a Eurotunnel train three days later.

Police then discovered that a mobile phone, linked to the train booking, had followed the route the car had taken to Kent on 21 December.

CCTV shows Martynas Okmanas, 28, walking up to a woman's house in Solihull before shooting her twice (West Midlands Police/PA)

Okmanas had gone abroad to spend Christmas with family in Lithuania, but on his return to the UK a covert police operation tracked him to an address in Birmingham the following February.

Officers had to break through a reinforced door and a barricade made of furniture before arresting Okmanas on the roof above a shop.

He refused to answer questions and his motive remains a mystery because nothing was stolen.

The 28-year-old, of Corby in Northamptonshire, denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court of attempted murder, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and having ammunition.

He was handed a 28-year jail term with a five-year extended licence period.

After sentencing, detective inspector Kat Sibley said: “We have some hypothesis for what was behind the attack but nothing concrete – and there are no links between Okmanas and the victim, as far as we know. Our belief is this was a targeted attack on the woman. This case is not closed.”

Press Association contributed to this report