A gunman killed five people before turning the gun on himself in Britain’s first mass shooting in over a decade.
Police identified the gunman as 22-year-old Jake Davison, according to The Associated Press (AP). Witnesses said Davison used a pump-action shotgun during the Thursday night spree that killed five victims ranging from three to 66 years old, AP reported.
Britain hasn’t seen a mass shooting in more than a decade and has strict gun laws. However, authorities said Davison did have a gun license, but did not confirm whether or not the gun he used was the firearm he had a license for, AP reported.
Police said Davison’s rampage began just after 6:00 p.m., when he shot and killed a woman in her Plymouth home, according to Shaun Sawyer, chief constable for Devon and Cornwall police. Sawyer added that authorities are investigating if Davison was related to the woman, according to AP.
I’m live in #Plymouth tonight for @ITVEveningNews at the scene of Britain’s first mass shooting in more than a decade. The community here is very much in shock. Please join me for this and the rest of the day’s news, if you can, at 6.30 #itvnews
— Lucrezia Millarini (@lucrezianews) August 13, 2021
Police said Davison then shot a “very young girl” and her male relative just outside the house. He shot and injured two more people as he walked down the street, police added. Then, Davison went to a park where he shot and killed one man and one woman, according to police.
Police responded to emergency calls about the shooting spree at 6:11 p.m., and arrived at the Plymouth house where he killed the woman six minutes later, Sawyer said, AP reported. But, Davison had already killed himself before police arrived at the scene, eyewitnesses claimed, AP noted.
Authorities are still searching for Davison’s motive, but do not suspect terrorism or links to extremist groups, Sawyer said, AP reported.
“We believe we have an incident that is domestically related that has spilled into the street and seen several people of Plymouth lose their lives in an extraordinarily tragic circumstance,” Sawyer stated, according to AP. “Let’s see what’s on his hard drive, let’s see what’s on his computer, let’s see what’s on social media.”
Davison apparently had a YouTube channel where he would post under the pseudonym “Professor Waffle,” AP reported. The account has now been taken down because YouTube claims the channel violated community guidelines. In Davison’s last video, he talks about how he has been “beaten down and defeated by … life,” and about struggling to lose weight, working as a scaffolder when he was younger, as well as his lack of romantic love life by invoking the term “incel,” according to AP. (RELATED: Man Self-Described As ‘Incel’ Charged For Plotting Mass Shooting Of Women In University Sororities)
In an agitated YouTube video posted 2 weeks ago the Plymouth gunman, named locally as Jake Davison, refers to himself as “the terminator”. He appears to affiliate with Incel (involuntary celibate) – a misogynistic group – expressing sympathy for “Incel virgins”.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) August 13, 2021
The last mass shooting in Britain occurred in 2010 after a taxi driver killed 12 people before turning the gun on himself, AP reported.