Very young girl killed by shooter in English city of Plymouth

[August 13, 2021]    By Natalie Thomas

PLYMOUTH, England (Reuters) -British police on Friday named Jake Davison as the 22-year-old man who went on a shooting spree that killed five people including a very young girl in the city of Plymouth, though they said the motive for the murders was unclear.

Six people, including a child, were killed in a mass shooting in the city of Plymouth in southwest England on Thursday evening, in an incident described by the British Home Secretary as "shocking". 

Davison started shooting, possibly with a pump-action shotgun, at around 6.00 pm on Thursday, first killing a woman he knew in a house in Biddick Drive in Plymouth.

He walked out of that house and shot dead a very young girl in the street along with her male relative.

Davison shot at two other people who were badly injured, then entered a park and shot dead another man before killing another woman in Henderson Place.

He then turned the gun on himself before firearms officers tackled him. The deadly shooting spree was over in just a few minutes, Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said.

"There is no motive," Sawyer told reporters.

"We are at the moment not considering terrorism or a relationship with any far right group or any such other group," he said, adding that his conduct on social media would be part of the investigation.

Sawyer said witnesses described the weapon as a pump action shotgun. He could not say whether or not Davison had mental health issues.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kate Holton)

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