Detectives hunting the killer who shot dead a father-of-four as he protected a woman in a pub row want to trace this man.

Adrian Paul, 28, is wanted over the murder of 26-year-old van driver Clifford Coby and the shooting of two others at the Red Lion pub in Ilford, east London Mr Coby, of Canning Town, was shot in the neck and chest on August 10 last year - shortly before the birth of his youngest girl, now two months old.

At around 9pm a "trivial argument" broke out in the beer garden of the pub, police said. One of the women among Mr Coby's friends was pelted with pool balls.

When he and another male friend tried to calm down the row, the killer pulled out a handgun.

Inside the pub, surrounded by about 50 people, he fired four shots. As Mr Coby collapsed inside the pub, his two friends managed to flee to a nearby off-license in Cranbrook Road.

The woman, aged 27, was wounded in the arm and the 26-year-old friend in the head. Both were later discharged from hospital.

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Boxall said Mr Paul "may have information" about the shootings. He warned the public not to approach him, as he may have a gun.

Police believe the 28-year-old, who frequents Ilford and Barking, have left the area after the murder.

Josephine Ansah, the mother of Mr Coby's twin girls, aged seven, and boy, five, said he always showed "immense care and concern for others in distress".

"Clifford lost his life trying to do the right thing," added Lee Jasper, head of the Met's Trident team, which investigates gun crime among blacks. Mr Coby paid the "ultimate price" for "trying to intervene".

His family appealed for help, especially from the black community, to "bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime against our beloved Coby to justice".

"We are making this appeal for the children who are now fatherless, for the parents who have lost their only son and the woman who must continue to live her life without a partner," said Ms Ansah.

"How long are we going to keep our eyes wide, but shut to crime, and our voices far from speaking the truth so Clifford's murderer can be brought to justice?

His uncle, Forster Mansu-Asmah, added: ""Don't think that one is your brother, sister, friend, whatever, and for that matter you are not prepared to report him or her. Well, then I bet you, you could be the next on the line because these people are mad.

"If people are prepared to use guns indiscriminately to resolve arguments instead of their heads, and we are not prepared to give them up, then I am afraid we are living in a very sick society."

CCTV cameras captured the fight in the beer garden, but not the shooting itself. About 40 of the onlookers have been traced, but detectives urged the rest to contact police.

Anyone with information can call 020 8345 3734 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555