A hero mother saved a child’s life before she was killed by a ‘grenade’ explosion detonated by her ex-boyfriend.
Joanne Shaw, 35, sent the youngster to play outside on the trampoline when a serious argument began in the early hours of Sunday morning, saving the child’s life, a neighbour said.
Ryan Kelly, 41, then set off the blast at her Bristol home in Sterncourt Road at 6.32am on Sunday – killing Ms Shaw and himself.
Police had already been called 15 minutes before the explosion to report a ‘domestic related incident’ and were told at 6.30am that a man was believed to have an explosive device.
The bomb also injured three other people – who are believed to be her son and two other family members – but they have all since been discharged from hospital.
The former couple had a history of domestic incidents, Avon and Somerset Police said.
The Daily Mail revealed Kelly was jailed for five years in 2015 after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine as part of a ‘Breaking Bad’ drugs gang – selling drugs for a 78-year-old battling cancer.
Joanne Shaw, 35, has been hailed as a hero for saving a child’s life before she was murdered by her ex-partner Ryan Kelly, 41
Kelly (pictured) forced his way into Ms Shaw’s home in Bristol and killed them both by detonating a ‘grenade’
Police scoured the scene on Sunday, May 4. Three others were injured – believed to be Ms Shaw’s son and two other family members – but have since been discharged from hospital
Stuart Blanchard, who lives a few doors down, told The Mirror: ‘I spoke to the guy who called 999 and he said the child was out on the trampoline. It will haunt [them].
‘She probably told [the child] to go out there to get out of the way of them arguing. I was woken to her [Joanne] shouting “go away, go away” and then there was this loud boom that shook my door and windows.’
He allegedly arrived at Ms Shaw’s home with a grenade and blew it up on her doorstep.
Mr Blanchard continued: ‘The partner’s [Kelly’s] gone there in a mental state. It wasn’t Jo’s house, it was her parents’, she just lived there.
‘She had split up with him and I think she moved there to escape from him.’
Another neighbour spoke about the child. He told the Daily Mail: ‘I heard a loud bang first thing on Sunday morning and assumed it was a gas explosion of some sort.
‘A neighbour of mine said he saw an ambulance crew giving CPR to two people outside in the street shortly afterwards.
‘It’s the little boy I feel so desperately sorry for. It’s devastating to know that he’ll grow up without his mother. It’s just a horrible loss for the family.’
Ms Shaw’s uncle, John Shaw, told the Daily Mail: ‘My younger brother Anthony rang me to tell me that she’d been killed and that her ex had let a grenade off in the house.
‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and am still struggling to make sense of all this. My brother was hardly able to speak, he was crying down the phone.
‘We called my niece Joey. She was a wonderful woman and a great mother.
‘I don’t understand why anybody would want to harm her in any way. The man who did this is the scum of the earth and it’s a good job he died because otherwise I’d have killed him myself.’
Mr Shaw, 76, added: ‘I’m still trying to understand where her ex got the grenade from and what type of grenade it was. But my brother wasn’t able to tell me anything about this because he was so devastated.’
The twisted frame of a smashed window is seen propped up against the wall of the home — May 5, 2026
A mugshot of Kelly in 2015. He was jailed for five years after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine as part of a ‘Breaking Bad’ drugs gang
A friend of Joanne’s mother said that when she heard the blast, she ‘just knew it had to be’ something to do with Ryan Kelly.
She described Ms Shaw as ‘the loveliest, kindest lady’ and said she ‘didn’t deserve this’. Ms Shaw’s family would never want to live at the scene of their daughter’s death again, she added.
A relative of Kelly’s extended family, who did not wish to be named, told the Daily Mail: ‘I had a telephone call from another family member to say that Ryan had died.
‘She told me that he had taken his own life and I was really shocked.
‘Even though it had been years since I had seen him – it was probably when he was only a child – I still couldn’t believe he was dead.
‘And to now hear that he might have died in that explosion is quite shocking.’
Mr Kelly was jailed in 2015 in a case that was likened to the US TV show Breaking Bad, where high school chemistry teacher Walter White starts making crystal meth to raise money after he is diagnosed with lung cancer.
In this case, cancer-stricken mastermind George Rogers, 78, ran the plot from prison despite his illness and recruited a self-taught chemist to set up a lab and make the highly addictive drug crystal meth.
But unlike the fictional version, the real-life plot stopped before they could flood the south west of England with drugs after undercover police bugged their cars.
