Thread: 12 people shot dead in Cumbria

Gunman kills several in west Cumbria


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Police have released this photograph of suspect Derrick Bird Several people have been killed and others injured after a gunman opened fire in several areas of west Cumbria. Police are searching for the suspect, named as Derrick Bird, after shots were fired in Whitehaven, Seascale and Egremont.
He is believed to be heading towards the central Lakes area in a grey or silver Picasso, registration ND55 ZFC.
A force spokesman said officers are working to establish the identities of those killed and wounded.
Police were initially called after shots were fired in Duke Street, Whitehaven, at 1035 BST.
A force spokesman said: "We can confirm that a number of people have been injured after shots were fired in the Whitehaven, Seascale and Egremont areas this morning.
"There are a number of fatalities and police are working to identify the individuals and inform relatives. Ambulance crews are in attendance across the area."


People living across central and west Cumbria are being urged to stay indoors and drivers are being warned not to pick up hitchhikers in case the suspect is on foot.
The Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in west Cumbria has also closed its gates as a safety precaution and afternoon shift workers are being told to stay away until the "risk is reduced".
Anyone who sees Mr Bird, from Rowrah near Frizington, should contact Cumbria Police.
A force spokesman said: "He was last seen heading south in the Central Lakes direction.
"He may have abandoned the car and be proceeding on foot. Armed police are currently working to apprehend him and advising members of the public in West and Central Lakes areas to go indoors and stay there until further notice."

watching ITV news at the moment and saying 2 dead and the cops are currently hunting the guy on foot after he abandoned his vehicle.

Sky News.....


Carefully considered panic inducing sensationalism at its best.

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Sky News.....


Carefully considered panic inducing sensationalism at its best.

There is a guy on the loose shooting and killing people. I think that he is the one inducing panic, not sky news.

The guys body has been found, guess he shot himself.

Originally Posted by Moonraker

There is a guy on the loose shooting and killing people. I think that he is the one inducing panic, not sky news.

Read the news from the various different sources that are available, then listen again to the Sky commentary.

Originally Posted by buriramboy

watching ITV news at the moment and saying 2 dead and the cops are currently hunting the guy on foot after he abandoned his vehicle.

Sorry to be off topic,

Assuming your in Buriram, how the F%6K do you watch ITV?

Originally Posted by bkkrunner

Originally Posted by buriramboy

watching ITV news at the moment and saying 2 dead and the cops are currently hunting the guy on foot after he abandoned his vehicle.

Sorry to be off topic,

Assuming your in Buriram, how the F%6K do you watch ITV?

I'm in Cheshire UK.

Originally Posted by buriramboy

Originally Posted by bkkrunner

Originally Posted by buriramboy

watching ITV news at the moment and saying 2 dead and the cops are currently hunting the guy on foot after he abandoned his vehicle.

Sorry to be off topic,

Assuming your in Buriram, how the F%6K do you watch ITV?

I'm in Cheshire UK.

that'll be why then fella!

Originally Posted by bkkrunner

Assuming your in Buriram, how the F%6K do you watch ITV?

Originally Posted by buriramboy

I'm in Cheshire UK

Very sad wonder what makes someone do random stuff.robbery and family stuff there is alogic this seems just crazy?

Very sad news. Prayers to the families.

Cumbria Police have confirmed that 12 people have been killed in the shooting spree across the county.



Gunman goes on killing spree in Cumbria Play video

Taxi driver Derrick Bird, 52, went on a shotgun rampage, killing 12 people and wounding at least 25 before turning his weapon on himself.
The divorced father-of-two shot several colleagues in Whitehaven in Cumbria, then drove his cab through the countryside of the Lake District blasting other victims apparently at random.
Following a frantic manhunt, police found his body 20 miles away in woods near the hamlet of Boot three-and-a-half hours later. Cumbria Police claim there are 30 separate crime scenes.
Detective Constable Stuart Hyde said: "This has shocked the people of Cumbria and around the country to the core... Derrick Bird has been located near boot at 1.40pm and we believe he took his own life."
"We are at a very early stage of the investigation... We're not really able to understand at this stage the motivation behind it or whether this was premeditated or random."
He added: "Our focus is to gather enough evidence to build up a clear picture of exactly what has occurred... We will look into Mr Bird's history, his access to firearms and his motivation for the shootings.
"It would be wrong to speculate at this stage the circumstances of this tragedy, and the gravity of it dictates that we have a full and comprehensive investigation and try to understand why someone would want to take so many lives in such a short space of time."

Yep. The police are not really ready to deal with something like this.

If this guy is just a happy man I'd hate to meet the bitter angry ones.


Derrick Bird's stunned .neighbours describe 'placid and happy man'

Locals in disbelief over gunman's rampage, saying he was easygoing and friendly, and had recently become a grandfather

• Severin Carrell
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 June 2010 19.35 BST
• Article history

Bird was well-known in his town and acquaintances said they had never seen him with a gun. Photograph: PA
Neighbours and passing friends remember Derrick Bird as a friendly, even-tempered man; the kind of neighbour with a ready smile, who would also stop for a chat. Their shock at his unprovoked shooting spree is resounding.
Ryan Dempsey, a neighbour, had known Bird since he was 10. "He was a very easygoing sort of fellow; never walked past without saying hello. The last time I saw him was last night or the night before, and he was just as happy as before. He waved through the window, nodded and smiled, and the next thing I hear is this tragedy."
Bird had a very good reason to be an apparently happy man: he had just become a grandfather. Last week, his son Graeme and his wife, Victoria, who lived only a few miles from Bird's ill-kempt and shabby cottage, had a son.
It is believed they named him Leighton Joe. But today, the curtains in their home were tightly drawn. On the sitting room window sill was a row of greetings cards crammed tightly together. Their neighbours, alerted to the day's shocking events, were unwilling to talk. "I have no information," said a young woman next door.
The couple had retreated to Graeme's mother's home in the bucolic village of Lamplugh, just a few miles away, which is a rambling collection of farms, pubs and idyllic country homes surrounded by pastures and hedgerows plump with spring flowers. Lamplugh is also home to Bird's brothers, David, who was one of his victims, and Bryan.
At the gate of the housing association home where Bird's former partner, Linda Mills, lives, a young police woman stood guard. She politely told reporters that no one inside was prepared to talk to the media. A family liaison officer was on their way.

While his son's and ex-partner's homes are smart, carefully tended and welcoming family homes, Bird's own cottage in the village of Rowrah has the air of neglect and loneliness. Rowrah is a small place, one of a string of hamlets and villages, mostly home to people who commute to Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant down the coast or to Whitehaven and Workington.
Bird's home is one of 13 small two-up-two-down pebble-dashed cottages in a tight row opening out onto the street. Its paint and plasterwork are peeling and stained; a dusty upstairs bedroom window is paint-splattered. A rusting satellite dish leans upwards from under the eaves. The downstairs curtains were tightly drawn, but on the window sill were lawyers' letters and one from the Criminal Injuries Compensation board.
There were strong rumours reported in Whitehaven that Bird, known to locals as "Birdy" had had feuds with other taxi drivers and was known to the police. But for many who knew him, Bird was "very placid" and well known on the Whitehaven taxi ranks.
One man who knew him told BBC Radio 4 he appeared to be a mild-mannered, content individual: "I can't see how this piece [the murder spree] fits into his jigsaw. It's just completely out of place."
Dempsey, 26, who works for a power company, had first met Bird when Dempsey's parents bought their cottage two doors away 15 years ago. He knew him as a child and six months ago had taken over the property.
Dempsey never saw Bird – a man reputed locally to be keen on railways – with guns or heard him talk about an interest in shooting or any membership of a shooting club. "I wasn't aware of it; I didn't see him with a firearm," he said.
But in this rural area with its gamekeepers and farmers, he said, shotgun ownership was common. He had heard that Bird had used a shotgun on his victims. But then many gun owners tend to keep their firearms out of sight.
"I can't remember seeing him with a firearm, no. Like I say, my dad is a gamekeeper and my dad doesn't like people openly seeing him with a firearm. It just puts people off."

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Sky News.....


Carefully considered panic inducing sensationalism at its best.

If you consider at least 12 shot dead and 14 injured panic inducing I guess for the people of coastal cumbria you might be right

Michael Ryan the second or is he another Thomas Hamilton? Seems there's always a skeleton in the cupboard somewhere.

BBC News - Profile: Cumbria gunman Derrick Bird

The man said Mr Bird enjoyed foreign holidays, travelling to Thailand each year with friends. Others said he loved "tinkering" with his car and was a fan of motor sports and scuba diving.

Didn't you mean a gun in the cupboard WK

I wonder what depressants he's on!

Originally Posted by corned dog

Didn't you mean a gun in the cupboard WK

Well.....I suppose there is that as well.......

This is an area I used to know very well, many many weeks spent driving around the area looking for locations on behalf of the company I was working for. A very quiet place, and this will be a huge blow to the people who live there.

RIP to all the fallen.

Looks like a big cover up operation in progress in the UK media. ' Nobody could tell '

'A freak happening' 'An occurence out of normal' and all the likes of this . Some criminologist saying 'sometimes a man has secrets ect ect.

The man would have had to have a serious Police Check and interview,a doctors report and and independant referee to get a gun licence (which appears to have had)'and a police check, a council check, a doctors medical and opinion that he was suitable man to be a taxi driver. All to no avail.

The system appears to be covering up like mad.

Condolences to the families and friends of the deceased.