Memorial service for murdered bystander Shanice Brookes

Dozens of people have gathered to pay tribute to a mother-of-one who was shot dead outside a Sheffield bar as she enjoyed a night out.

Police described 30-year-old Shanice Brookes as “an innocent bystander” after she was killed near the One Four One bar on West Street in the early hours of 25 May.

Two men have been charged in connection with her death, with another three men arrested and bailed over an altercation which took place immediately before Brookes was shot.

Earlier, her friends and family gathered at Sheffield Cathedral to celebrate her life. The congregation was welcomed to the service by the Dean of Sheffield, Abi Thompson, who also read the poem She’s Gone, by David Harkings.

Among the music for the service was the song For Good, from the hit musical Wicked.

Brookes, who had a 10-year-old son, volunteered for the Sheffield community charity Zest and was about to finish a degree at Sheffield College.

Thompson said the day had been “a really sombre occasion”.

“I could feel quite a lot of shock in the air still and people not really able to come to terms with what has happened,” she said.

“Shanice had so much beauty and joy about her, she was a person who cared about other people and loved other people.

“As a community in Sheffield we need to get round [her] family and help them get through this. They have been amazingly strong but my goodness I don’t know how they are doing it.”

Pastor David Ussue from the Church of God of Prophecy on Duke Street in the Park Hill neighbourhood of the city said he knew Brookes’ family.

He said they had wanted to celebrate her life while also mourning their loss.

“It really felt like a waste of life,” he said of her death.

“As I spoke with her family I got the impression of a lovely woman, a giving woman, a beautiful woman inside and outside.”