Girl, 3, among five killed in U.K. rampage
`Beaten-down' gunman kills self before capture
LONDON • A 22-year-old gunman who posted YouTube videos filled with despair and self-loathing is suspected of killing five people, including a three-year-old girl, in the first mass shooting in Britain in more than a decade, police said.
The Thursday night shooting spree in the seaside city of Plymouth, in southwest England, stunned the country, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the world.
The suspect, identified by British police on Friday as Jake Davison, started firing his weapon on Thursday evening around 6 p.m. local time, first killing a 51-yearold woman he knew in a house before running into the street and killing the toddler and her 43-year-old male relative, police said.
Davison then shot at two other passersby, who were badly injured, before he entered a park and shot a 59-year-old man, who died at the scene, and a 66-year-old woman, who died at a nearby hospital, police said. Davison turned the gun on himself before firearms officers could tackle him, Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer told reporters.
Police said they were at the scene within six minutes of being alerted. They are searching for answers, including combing through Davison's social media.
There was no immediate motive, Sawyer said on Friday, adding that authorities were not considering terrorism or any far-right associations as the spark, though officers were searching his computer for clues.
“We believe we have an incident that is domestically related, that has spilled into the street and seen several people within Plymouth losing their lives in an extraordinarily tragic circumstance,” Sawyer said.
He added that witnesses had described the weapon as a pump-action shotgun. Sawyer said Davison had a firearms license, but it was unclear if the weapon he used was the licensed gun. Police did not say whether Davison had mental health issues.
Britain's Home Secretary, Priti Patel, who is in charge of domestic security, called the killings “absolutely tragic and devastating” and suggested she would seek answers to why Davison had a gun licence.
“There will be a range of questions that will inevitably be asked,” Patel said.
Davison's Facebook account and YouTube account were removed by the platforms. But British media aired video clips he had posted to YouTube in the days before the rampage. In one, he complained, “I'm so beaten down and ... defeated by life.”