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This article recounts the execution of David Ungi – a father-of-three shot dead on the streets of Liverpool on May 1, 1995 – along with the seismic consequences that forever changed how drug trafficking, gang warfare and police tactics operated in the port city. The content is for educational and historical documentation purposes only, based on sources from the Liverpool Echo, The Independent and police investigation records. It does not aim to glorify violence or advocate for crime.
The Street Execution That Changed Liverpool Forever: David Ungi and the Birth of ‘Gun Madness’
Murder vcitim David Ungi
North Hill Street, Dingle, Liverpool. A long, wide road flanked on either side by play parks, takeaways and rows of modern semi-detached houses. If you keep heading south-west over Park Road, you will eventually end up on the banks of the Mersey. There is nothing remarkable about this street. Yet this unremarkable Dingle street was the scene of a shooting that shook the city to its core, sparked a bloody gang war, and forced police to change their tactics forever. That was the execution of David Ungi on the evening of May 1, 1995. From that moment on, Liverpool was never the same again. Guns were no longer the last resort; they became the tool for settling even the smallest disputes. And three decades later, the man who pulled the trigger has still never been brought to justice.
1. ‘A Contract-Style Assassination’ in Broad Daylight
David Ungi was 36 years old. He was a father of three, a businessman in the Dingle community where he had grown up. At the time of his death, he was variously described in press reports as a former boxing champion and a former part-time used car dealer. At around 5:40 p.m. on May 1, 1995, Ungi was driving his VW Passat along North Hill Street.
Suddenly, a black VW Golf GTi pulled in front of his car. A man jumped out brandishing an automatic weapon and opened fire. Ungi tried to escape, but he was hit twice. One of the bullets struck a main artery. He collapsed and died at the scene. A source from the criminal underworld later told the Liverpool Echo: “There is no doubt that this was a contract-style assassination. Someone, somewhere, decided that David Ungi had to die, and that was the time they did it.”
2. ‘Things Were Never Going to Be the Same from the Moment David Ungi Was Shot’
Ungi’s death was not the first street shooting in Liverpool, but it is regarded as the watershed moment. What made the difference was the motive. Before this, guns were typically used as a last resort in long-running feuds. But Ungi’s killing stemmed from a relatively trivial dispute.
According to multiple sources, the root cause of Ungi’s death was a fist fight – a ‘straightener’ – between him and another man named Johnny Phillips in March 1995. The fight arose from a dispute over the Cheers bar on Aigburth Road, a drinking spot where the Ungi family were regulars. Ungi, a former boxing champion, won the fight. But Phillips felt it was unfair, claiming Ungi had used a knuckleduster.
An unnamed underworld source told the Liverpool Echo: “Guns used to be used as a last resort. Anything petty would usually be sorted by a straightener. But that is not the case any more. Some people turn to guns at the slightest bit of aggravation. I’ve seen it happen over women, over betting, even over arguments about football. It wasn’t like that before. You cannot put your finger on exactly when things changed, but in my opinion, things were never going to be the same from the moment David Ungi was shot down over a row about a pub.” This was what Liverpool newspapers came to call ‘gun madness’.
3. ‘Ten Shootings in Twenty-Two Days’ and The Birth of Armed Police on English Streets
North Hill Street, Dingle. Photo by Colin Lane
The aftermath of Ungi’s death was even more shocking than the murder itself. From one small feud, the whole of Liverpool’s L8 district went up in flames. In the 22 days following the execution, there were 10 separate shootings on the streets of Liverpool. Five people were injured in two shootings in the last week of May alone. Masked youths set cars on fire and openly brandished weapons in public.
Merseyside Police Chief Constable James Sharples announced a new, unprecedented strategy for peacetime mainland Britain: to ‘fight fire with fire’. For the first time in British history, routine armed police patrols were deployed on the streets, rather than being reserved for special operations. Armoured estate cars carrying officers armed with semi-automatic Heckler & Koch rifles patrolled the Dingle and Toxteth areas. ‘Military-style’ checkpoints were set up at strategic locations, and suspects were stopped and searched ‘many times a day’.
This new patrol was not only intended to reassure the public but also to ‘disrupt’ the activities of the gangs, making it impossible for them to operate with ease. However, the most drastic measure came on May 23, 1995, when every officer on duty in Dingle, Toxteth and the city centre was issued with a bulletproof vest, the first time in the force’s history this had happened. A police spokesman said: “We are dealing with people who are prepared to use extreme violence. We have to protect our officers.”
4. A Family’s Fear and An Unsolved Verdict
In the days after Ungi’s death, his wife Jean appealed for witnesses and revealed a haunting truth: David Ungi had been living in fear since a previous assassination attempt on March 21, 1995, on Morton Street. She told the press: “He was terrified and extremely worried about his family’s safety. He wore a bulletproof vest all day long, even when he went jogging in Princes Park. I don’t know why he wasn’t wearing it that night.”
Two days after the murder, police had named suspects. They named two men they wished to interview: Darren James Jackson and Barry Kevin ‘Bunji’ O’Rourke. Both were believed to have left the United Kingdom after their names were made public. In 2006, both were interviewed by police, but ultimately it was announced that no further action would be taken and they were no longer wanted in connection with the investigation. Johnny Phillips, who had fought with Ungi, was charged with conspiracy to murder, but the case was subsequently dropped. A year later, Phillips was shot four times but survived; he later died of a heart attack, with long-term steroid use cited as a contributing factor.
To this day, three decades later, the murder of David Ungi remains an unsolved case. Merseyside Police’s Major Crime Unit regularly reviews the file, but the man who pulled the trigger has never been brought to justice.
The Legacy of One Shooting
North Hill Street today looks no different from any other street in Liverpool. But what happened here on a May evening thirty years ago left an indelible mark on the city. The execution of David Ungi broke an unwritten rule: that guns were not for trivial disputes. It opened an era in which a pub argument could end with a street shooting. It forced police to change, becoming more robust and better armed than ever before. And three decades later, the biggest question remains unanswered. But the legacy of the case is clear: Liverpool changed forever. And as an unnamed source told the Liverpool Echo on the 10th anniversary of the murder: “Things were never going to be the same from the moment David Ungi was shot down.”
Primary Sources
Liverpool Echo, “The murder which changed Liverpool’s gangland culture forever” (Patrick Edrich, 2025)
Liverpool Echo, “Street execution of dad-of-three that changed crime in Liverpool forever” (2020)
Liverpool Echo, “Police took to streets in armoured cars ‘to fight fire with fire’ after dad’s brutal assassination” (2024)
Liverpool Echo, “The birth of gun madness” (Tony Barrett & Paddy Shennan, 2005)
The Independent, “So, who does run Toxteth?” (Tony Bell, 1995)