Hackney Vignette…

A 15-year-old girl shot dead in a house in Hackney, east London, on Saturday afternoon has been named as Shereka Fab-Ann Marsh.

Who’s surprised at the protagonists in this? Yeah. Me too. And the photos grabbed off Facebook and plastered all over the press show her to be 15 but clearly going on 27…

Is there the obligatory chavshrine?

Friends gathered close to the terraced house where the incident took place and laid flowers while forensic crime officers continued their investigation behind a cordon.

Some words of wisdom from her friends:

"Shereka only went to drop off his birthday present, and somehow she got shot," one said. "Nobody knows how yet. It's awful."

Another friend said: "I don't know why there was a gun there when [he] was celebrating his 15th birthday, but this is Hackney."

This …. Is….HACKNEY!!! Not Sparta. In case there should be any doubt. I’d be surprised if the life expectancy wasn’t similar though…

On Sunday night her headmaster, Richard Brown, said the school was "stunned by the completely unexpected and tragic death" of the year 11 student who on Friday had been helping raise money for Sport Relief. "It is absolutely out of the blue," he said. "You couldn't have a more innocent victim … Shereka was a bright able student and was on track to be really successful in her GCSEs. She was a great role model for other younger students. She would not knowingly be involved with anything that would have contributed to her death."

Right. Of course not. Never. Perish the thought.

The traditional Hackney parenting? Very much so:

Chainelle Jennings, 16, said her friend was "a nice bubbly girl and she loved to party, loved shopping"… She added Shereka was an only child who lived with a "very protective" mother while her father lives in Jamaica.

I’m sure he contributes to her upkeep, though? Baby needs new shoes false nails & hair extensions!

Krista Brown, an ambassador for the national apprenticeship service, whose son Shad Brown knew Shereka and the boys who were being questioned, described it as "a tragic situation for both sides of the coin".

"This is a local community," she said. "They're our kids. What people fail to realise is that this is our kids' reality."

Is it? How terribly sad. Well, I suppose you must really want it that way, given any attempt to change it is met with resistance from the usual suspects.  It’s notable, too, that this unfortunate death is unlikely to garner any protest marches or anguished columns in CiF.

Of course, not content with the actual, meatspace shrine, there’s the ubiquitous virtual one to contend with:

An "RIP Shereka" Facebook page created to host tributes to the schoolgirl referenced suggestions that she was accidentally shot. Loopylou Olliffe wrote: "RIP sweet princess. These evil people need to be stopped. Thinking praying and sending my love to you family in these sad times god bless you all xxx". Elaine Pearson, an NHS nurse, added: "OMG …How do they get these guns?"

Yeah, Elaine. It’s a real mystery. Innit?