Police hunt for '˜pram-pushing hitman' in Penilee shooting

Forensic invesitgators enter the primary school yesterday. Picture: John Devlin/TSPL

Ross Monaghan was shot outside St George’s Primary in the south-west of the city shortly before classes were due to begin on Monday morning.

The 35-year-old, a convicted drug dealer, had dropped his own child off at the school before he was attacked outside the building in the Penilee estate.

The assailant, who remains at large, pulled a gun from an empty buggy before shooting Monaghan in the back from close range.

No one else was injured and the victim was later discharged from hospital.

It later emerged that a parent had filmed the hitman - whose face was obscured by a scarf and woollen hat - moments before the attack as they were concerned about his suspicious behaviour.

“We saw this guy with an empty pram acting weird on Friday morning,” the witness told The Scottish Sun.

“I was in my car at school when I saw him again on Monday morning and started filming him - I thought he was there to steal a child.

The shooting happened outside St George's Primary in the Penilee estate in the south-west of Glasgow. Picture: John Devlin/TSPL

“After taking a few photos, I started to film him - next thing I knew he had pulled a gun out of the buggy and was firing it.

“I thought he was going to kill everyone - all I could hear was screaming. It was madness a stray bullet would have killed a child.”

Police Scotland said they were still looking for both the pram and the weapon. The incident is being treated as attempted murder.

Monaghan was cleared of killing gangster Kevin ‘Gerbil’ Carroll, an enforcer for the Daniel crime family, in 2012 in a drive-by shooting.

Billy Paterson, 29, was given 22 years for the murder in 2015 after giving himself up for trial.

Chief Inspector Simon Jeacocke said: “This is a highly unusual incident and understandably, parents, staff, pupils and people in the local community are all very alarmed by this.

“We do believe it was a targeted attack but nonetheless this took place near to a local primary school at the start of the school day, when the area was busy with parents dropping off their children.

“Although it would appear that there was an intended victim, anyone could have been injured as a result, putting young children and innocent people at risk.”