Sir Ian Blair , the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, will hold talks with senior detectives today after the third fatal shooting of a teenager in South London in less than a fortnight.

Police were called to Fenwick Place in Clapham at around 3.40pm yesterday where they found the 15-year-old boy with a gunshot wound. Paramedics attended but the victim — named locally as Billy Cox — was pronounced dead at the scene. He had been discovered by a family member.

Although the shooting is believed to have occurred inside the victim’s home, it is unclear in which room. It is thought that the schoolboy has a white father and a Thai mother. Both have been informed of the death and a postmortem is due to be carried out today.

His death follows the fatal shootings of two other teenage boys in South London in the past few weeks, one in his bed in Peckham and another at an ice rink in Streatham.

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What has happened in our inner cities is that too many different people have been thrown together too fast in too many areas that were already deprived

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Background

• The Peckham gang culture that killed my sister

• Violence still plagues area after £290m rejuvenation

• Woman killed with baby in arms

• The London surgeons who need skills from a war zone

• The facts of Britain's gun culture

Sir Ian will meet officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime Directorate — which includes Operation Trident, tasked with investigating gun crime in the black community — today. A Scotland Yard spokesman said the case was “likely” to be handed over to Operation Trident.

Detectives are keeping an open mind about the motive for the shooting, but it is not believed to have been a case of mistaken identity.

There are understood to be no signs of forced entry at the 15-year-old’s home, which is a ground floor maisonette in a block of flats that forms part of the Fenwick estate. It is likely that he knew his attackers.

Detectives are investigating whether the shooting was the result of a row that got out of hand or some kind of feud or local dispute.

Last night neighbours of the boy, who lived on the Fenwick Estate, said that they were shocked.

Christina Piludu said: “I know he was a good boy. He always respected all of us.”

She believed the boy lived with his parents and a younger sister. She said: “They are very nice children. He was always in the square playing with his bike, talking with the other children, just normal.”

The force said gun crime in London was continuing to fall despite the latest shooting.

Michael Dosunmu was shot and killed by gunmen who broke into his home in Peckham in the early hours of February 6, just days after he celebrated his 15th birthday.

Police believe Michael was a victim of mistaken identity. They think his murder is linked to the fatal stabbing of Javarie Crighton, 21, in an adjacent road, on February 3. A 23-year-old man has already appeared in court charged with his murder.

James Andre Smartt-Ford, 16, died after he was shot at least twice during an ice disco at Streatham Ice Arena on the night of February 3.

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