The 22-year-old gunman in the rare Thursday-evening shooting in a southwest England suburb first shot and killed his mom at her home before taking to the streets. His rampage ended when he turned the gun on himself.
The gunman’s mom, Maxine Davidson, 51, was the first victim in Thursday night’s mass shooting in the coastal town of Plymouth. Twenty-two-year-old Jake Davidson had killed his mother, who also goes by the name Maxine Chapman, in her home before continuing on in what is now believed to be Britain’s worst killing spree since 2010, BBC News reported.
Authorities responded to a “serious firearms incident” in the Keyham area around 6:10 p.m. Thursday evening and found Davidson, who has been linked to “incel” forums online according to The Guardian, had turned the gun on himself after a several-minute-long killing spree that ended with the deaths of two female and three male victims including himself, the Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement.
An additional female victim died of gunshot wounds later at the hospital, Reuters reported.
“My thoughts are with the friends and family of those who lost their lives and with all those affected by the tragic incident in Plymouth last night,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted about the rare shooting.
Now, the victims are being identified and authorities have a clearer picture of what happened in the southwest England suburb.
After murdering his own mother, Davidson left the home and killed 3-year-old Sophie and her 43-year-old father, Lee Martyn, BBC News reported. The father-and-daughter duo had apparently been returning home a walk when they were shot to death, The Guardian reported.
They are survived by Sophie’s mom Becky, an ICU nurse, and her sibling, according to The Guardian, adding that according to social media posts, the Martyn family adopted Sophie in 2019.
59-year-old Stephen Washington was killed in a nearby park, and 66-year-old Kate Shepherd was shot and transported to the hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries, authorities said.
All the victims lived in the same neighborhood of Keyham.
A motive in the shootings has not yet been established. Authorities say the incident was not terror-related but clarified that “social media” may have been a factor, chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police Shaun Sawyer said Friday.
Davidson had reportedly made misogynistic YouTube videos, in which he calls women “motivated by money,” says his mother is “vile, dysfunctional and chaotic,” and refers to the “incels,” a group of “involuntarily celibate” men who blame women for their problems, BBC News reported. In a video taken down by YouTube but reshared by The Telegraph, Davidson refers to himself as “the terminator,” and says he is “beaten down and defeated by life.”
Two additional people were injured on the scene with non-life-threatening injuries, the New York Times reported.
Davidson had a license for the gun, authorities said. However, his gun license was revoked in December, but reinstated last month after he attended an anger management course, The Guardian reported.
Witnesses described the gun used in the shooting a “pump-action shotgun."
