Rare Mass Shooting in U.K. Claims Five Victims

A 22-year-old gunman shot dead five people in England before taking his own life, a rare example of gun violence in a country with strict firearms controls.

The shooter, named by police as Jake Davison, used what eyewitnesses described as a pump-action shotgun to carry out the attack in the city of Plymouth, southwestern England, late Thursday, according to police.

Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said at a news conference Friday that the reason for the killings was unclear. One of the victims was a young girl shot dead in the street.

“There is no motive that we know at present,” he said. Mr. Sawyer said police aren’t considering terrorism as a motive and don’t think Mr. Davison had any relationship with far-right groups, but he added they are examining his social media accounts as part of the investigation. In videos posted online, Mr. Davison complained of being “beaten down and defeated” by life and upset at not having a girlfriend. He described himself as “the Terminator.”

Incidents of gun violence are relatively rare in the U.K., where access to firearms is tightly controlled. Automatic weapons are illegal. A strict licensing regime governs access to shotguns and sporting rifles. Handguns, with narrow exceptions, are banned.

Mr. Davison was the holder of a firearms license, Mr. Sawyer said. He said police haven’t confirmed if the weapon used in the attack was the firearm Mr. Davison was licensed to hold.

Police said they were called to what they described as a serious firearms incident in Plymouth at 6.10 p.m. local time Thursday.

Mr. Davison first shot and killed a person in a house in the western residential district of the city, Mr. Sawyer said. He then shot and killed a young girl and her male relative in the street outside. He shot two other residents of the area, a man and a woman, who both survived and are being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds.

He then killed another man in a nearby park and shot a woman who later died of her injuries in the hospital. Mr. Davison then turned the gun on himself, Mr. Sawyer said.

Police said they aren’t looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

Guns were reported to have been used in just 3.7% of homicides in England and Wales the year ended March 2020, according to official statistics, and 1.6% of robberies.

Mass shootings are rarer still. A gunman in 1987 shot 16 people in Hungerford, England, in an apparently random attack. The deadliest was in 1996, when shooter Thomas Hamilton stormed a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 17, a massacre that prompted tougher legislation to limit access to firearms. The most recent was in 2010 when a lone gunman killed 12 in Cumbria, northern England.