SHOOTING victim Elle Edwards was innocently caught up in a feud between rival drug gangs, it is believed.
The 26-year-old beautician was hit in the head as she sat in a pub’s outdoor seated area on Christmas Eve.
It is thought the gunman had been tipped off that a man he had a bust-up with a few days earlier was among the drinkers.
Witnesses said he fired up to 12 rounds before fleeing in a dark Mercedes.
Four men were hit.
One, understood to be his target, remains in a critical condition.
Police vans and forensic teams were seen at the homes of both the gunman and his intended victim as police made an arrest.
Last night cops were continuing to question a 30-year-old on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
They were also quizzing a 19-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
Elle had been with her sister Lucy and pals at the Lighthouse Inn in Wallesey, Merseyside.
Lucy had headed home before shots rang out just before midnight.
Elle, sitting in a heated covered area festooned with fairy lights, slumped to the ground.
Revellers performed CPR before paramedics arrived but she died soon after at Arrowe Park Hospital.
Elle’s heartbroken family, including dad Tim, left flowers at the scene on Boxing Day.
Chief Con Serena Kennedy said last night: “As a mum of two girls who are a similar age to Elle, I can’t begin to comprehend what they are going through right now.
“But I do know they will carry the heavy loss of Elle for the rest of their lives.
“Detectives will be relentless in their work to establish what led up to the incident and who was responsible.”
The tragedy comes less than two weeks after a senior copper in the area spoke of his fears of innocent people being killed by warring gangs.
Discussing two local rival groups — dubbed the Woodchurch OCG and the Ford OCG — Wirral local community policing inspector Alan McKeon said: “If you have these factional disputes ongoing, and people using firearms in anger towards each other, there are just absolutely innocent people who get caught in the crossfire of these people.”
In August nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot dead by a masked man who burst into her house in Dovecot, Liverpool, while chasing a convicted burglar.
The day before council worker Ashley Dale, 28 was shot dead in the Old Swan area.
Again, she was not thought to have been the intended target.
