Community in shock over dad’s gun death
JON MACPHERSON CHARLOTTE GREEN
THE community has reacted in shock after a man died after suffering a gunshot wound in Oswaldtwistle.
Lee Holt was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital following the incident on Wednesday, October 25 where he died a short time later.
Two blue police tents covered the front of the house, and the road was blocked by police tape with officers standing guard following the incident.
Crime scene forensic officers in white boiler suits could be seen working at the property.
One resident on Barnard Close said: “I was out when it happened but when I came home there was loads of police and blue flashing lights.
“I couldn’t believe it when I found out what happened. “We are really shocked. “It’s a quiet family area round here with a school nearby and you don’t expect something like this to happen.”
Another resident on Conway Drive said: “It beggars belief.
“This year in Oswaldtwistle we’ve already had a drive-by shooting, armed robberies at the Spar and Bargain Booze and now this.
“It’s very sad and tragic what happened.”
Oswaldtwistle county councillor Peter Britcliffe said the incident had caused a profound ‘sense of shock’ in the area.
He said: “It’s a shocking and dreadful incident. What can you do about something like this, it’s not something that’s supposed to happen.
“You hear about these things happening on the television but actually you don’t expect it to happen so close to home, and in this extreme.
“It’s certainly the most serous thing I have known to happen in Oswaldtwistle in all the years I have been a member of the council, and it will certainly shock people throughout the town.
“There will be a sense of shock, that this happened in a close-knit community like Oswaldtwistle and it will reverberate.”
Immanuel ward councillor Judith Addison said: “It’s a very residen- tial area round there, it’s a very well established nice estate. It’s certainly not the sort of area where you would expect this.”