Horden shooting
Horden shooting | |
---|---|
Location | Horden, County Durham, England, UK |
Date | 1 January 2012 |
Attack type | mass shooting, murder-suicide |
Weapon | shotgun |
Deaths | 4 (including the perpetrator) |
Injured | 1 |
Perpetrator | Michael Atherton |
The Horden shooting was a mass shooting in Horden, England, on 1 January 2012, also called the New Year's Day shooting. 42-year-old Michael Atherton shot his partner Susan McGoldrick, her sister Alison Turnbull and her daughter Tanya Turnbull with a shotgun, before killing himself.[1] They were all killed in Atherton's home, where three others escaped from an upstairs window, one of whom had suffered minor injuries from the spray of the gun.[2]
Background
Michael Atherton, a taxi driver, had a licence which allowed him to legally own firearms, six in total - three of which were shotguns. Despite having his guns confiscated in 2008 by police, they were later returned.[3]
He was arrested for affray at a local club, and months later armed police were called to his home after he threatened to "blow his head off" to his family.[4]
See also
- Cumbria shootings
- List of massacres in Great Britain
- List of mass shootings in the United Kingdom
- Plymouth shooting
References
- ^ "Gun victims' family 'devastated'". BBC News. 4 January 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- ^ "Police name gunman and three victims in Durham shooting". BBC News. 2 January 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- ^ "Horden shootings: IPCC highlights Durham Police failings". BBC News. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- ^ "Horden shooting family in gun control law petition". BBC News. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- 2010s in County Durham
- 2010s mass shootings in the United Kingdom
- 2012 in England
- 2012 mass shootings in Europe
- 2012 murders in the United Kingdom
- 21st-century mass murder in the United Kingdom
- January 2012 crimes
- January 2012 events in the United Kingdom
- Crime in County Durham
- Deaths by firearm in England
- Mass murder in 2012
- Mass murder in England
- Mass shootings in England
- Murder–suicides in the United Kingdom