Gunman dead after British shooting rampage

[kiwi_2005]

Just woke up to hear this on the radio, log on the net and found the story. Just happened today if im right.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/...ooting-rampage

Thing that gets me is he was the friendly type got on well with everyone, makes you wonder how a man can just snap and go on a killing spree.

LATEST: A taxi driver has gone on a shooting spree across a rural area of northwestern England, police said, killing 12 people and wounding 25 others before turning the gun on himself.
The rampage in Cumbria was the deadliest mass shooting since 1996 in Britain, where gun ownership is tightly restricted and handguns are banned.
The deadly spree "has shocked the people of Cumbria and around the country to the core," Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said.
Officers found Derrick Bird's body in woods near the Lake District village of Boot. Hyde said two weapons were recovered from the scene.
The shootings occurred in the town of Whitehaven and nearby Seascale and Egremont, about 560 kilometres northwest of London. The area is popular with hikers and vacationers.
Health service spokesman Nigel Calvert said three of the injured were in a critical condition in the hospital.
Hyde said there were 30 separate crime scenes. Witnesses described seeing the gunman driving around shooting out the window of his car. His victims included a woman on a bicycle, a farmer in his field and at least two fellow taxi drivers.
Barrie Walker, a doctor in Seascale who certified one of the deaths, told the BBC that victims had been shot in the face, apparently with a shotgun.
Witness Alan Hannah told the Whitehaven News that he saw a man with a shotgun in a car near a taxi stand in Whitehaven. Photos showed a body, covered in a sheet, lying in a street in the town.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen in our part of the world," local lawmaker Jamie Reed told the BBC. "We have got one of the lowest, if not the lowest, crime rates in the country."
Multiple shootings in Britain are rare. In 1987, gun enthusiast Michael Ryan killed 16 people in the English town of Hungerford. In 1996, Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher at a kindergarten in Dunblane, Scotland.
Glenda Pears, who runs L&G Taxis in Whitehaven, said one of the victims was another taxi driver who was a friend of Bird's.
"They used to stand together having a (laugh) on the rank," she said. "He was friends with everybody and used to stand and joke on Duke Street."
Sue Matthews, who works at A2B Taxis in Whitehaven, said Bird was self-employed, quiet and lived alone.
"I would say he was fairly popular. I would see him once a week out and about. He was known as 'Birdy,'" she said.
"I can't believe he would do that - he was a quiet little fellow."
Multiple shooting incidents are rare in Britain.
In 1996, a gunman massacred 16 children and their teacher in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996 and a man shot dead 16 people in the southern English town of Hungerford in 1987.
Police said every armed officer in the county had been involved in trying to trying to capture Bird, a taxi driver in the coastal town of Whitehaven where the shootings began at 10.35am (9.35pm NZ time).
"Our focus now is to find out what has caused this and where Mr Bird has been over the last 24 hours and in particular the last few hours," Hyde said.

[SteamWake]

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=170520

[kiwi_2005]

Yep kiwis late as usual. Man and i just heard it on the radio heres me thinking i would be the first!

[Platapus]

Well thank goodness that Britain has those gun laws. They really saved the day.

At least we can determine that this shooter was not a law abiding citizen.... that's something..... I guess.

I am sure it will be a real comfort to the victim's family that there was no way their family member was shot by a law abiding citizen.

[Lord_magerius]

GTA:Cumbria