Plymouth shooting

Plymouth shooting
Location	Keyham, Plymouth, UK
Coordinates	50°23′27″N 4°10′15″W
Date	12 August 2021
Attack type	Mass shooting
Weapons	Firearm
Deaths	6 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	2
Assailant	Jake Davison

A mass shooting occurred in the Keyham area of Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom on 12 August 2021. Six people were killed, including the gunman. It was the first fatal mass shooting in the UK since the Cumbria shootings of 2010.

Background

See also: Firearms regulation in the United Kingdom

Shootings are rare in the United Kingdom. It is necessary to have a either a Shotgun Certificate (SGC) or a Firearms Certificate (FAC) to own most classes of permitted firearms; in Great Britain, certificates are granted by the local policing authority. For an FAC the applicant must demonstrate a good reason for owning the particular firearm, as well as having certified secure storage, while an SGC only requires the latter; both types of certificate require a background check. The previous fatal mass shooting in the UK – also with licensed firearms – was in Cumbria in 2010, when twelve people were killed.

Shooting and response

On the evening of 12 August 2021, Jake Davison opened fire with a pump-action shotgun inside a house on Biddick Drive, a residential street in the Keyham area of Plymouth, Devon, killing his 51-year-old mother, Maxine. He left the house and shot and killed Sophie Martyn, a 3-year-old girl and her 43-year-old father Lee in the street. He then injured a 33-year-old male and 53-year-old female on Biddick Drive, before shooting and killing Stephen Shepherd, a 59-year-old man in nearby parkland. Davison then went to Henderson Place and shot and mortally wounded a Kate Shepherd, a 66-year-old woman, before killing himself with the same gun.

G-DAAN, one of the air ambulances that attended the scene (pictured in 2013)

Devon and Cornwall Police and the South Western Ambulance Service were alerted to the incident at 18:11 and 18:12 BST respectively. The ambulance service responded with a significant number of resources, including hazardous area response teams, ambulances, four air ambulances, doctors, and senior paramedics. The responding police officers found the bodies of two females and three males (including that of the perpetrator); all had died from gunshot wounds. They described the events as a "serious firearms incident". The injured male and female faced significant but not life-threatening injuries.

The woman shot in Henderson Place was treated at the scene for gunshot wounds but later died in hospital. At 21:34, the police reported that they believed the incident to be contained.

Perpetrator

The gunman was named by police as Jake Davison. He was a 22-year-old apprentice crane operator who described himself as an incel. He was licensed to own a firearm, though police have not confirmed if his licensed gun was that used in the shooting.

The chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Shaun Sawyer, said that Davison's motive was unknown, and that police were "currently not considering terrorism or a relationship with any Far Right group or any other such group" and that terrorism was "not the [investigation's] focus", although they were keeping an "open mind". He stated that police believed the shooting was a "domestic incident [that] spilled into the streets". Following Devon and Cornwall Police's self-referral to IOPC, the IOPC are investigating the service's previous dealings with Davison and their decision to grant a firearms licence.

Davison's Facebook account was deleted in accordance with the site's Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy. His YouTube channel, which included references to "inceldom" and the black pill ideology, was terminated for having violated the offline behaviour policy.