Plymouth shooting - latest: Anger as gun returned to Jake Davison and ‘incels could be classed as terrorists’
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Your support makes all the difference.Labour has said police have questions to answer over how a gunman obtained a firearms licence and went on a rampage as more tributes poured in for the victims of the killing spree.
Gunman Jake Davison killed five people – including his mother and a three-year-old girl – and injured two others in the city’s Keyham area on Thursday evening before turning his gun on himself.
The 22-year-old had his gun returned weeks before Thursday’s deadly shooting spree after it was taken away last December following an assault allegation, according to the police watchdog.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has said it will investigate Devon and Cornwall Police’s decision-making in relation to Davison’s possession of the weapon and certificate.
On Saturday, Priti Patel visited Plymouth to pay tribute to the victims . The city council chief also said residents remained “in a state of shock” after experiencing the UK’s first mass shooting in more than a decade.
Plymouth shooting: Killer given gun licence back weeks before attack
Plymouth shooting: What happened and who are the victims? What we know so far
Jake Davison named locally as Plymouth shooter: What we know so far
A new terror threat? How Plymouth shooter delved into violent ‘incel’ subculture before massacre
Davison ‘should have been on police watchlist'
Plymouth gunman Jake Davison should have been on a police watchlist before he killed five people and himself in a shooting spree, a former top prosecutor said.
Nazir Afzal, who was previously chief crown prosecutor for the North West said Davison was “exactly the type of person the authorities should be keeping an eye on”.
Mr Afzal said none of Davison’s social media posts seemed to have been taken into account when restoring his gun licence.
PA
What do we know so far about attack and victims?
Five people were killed in the attack before the gunman turned the weapon on himself.
Here is what we know about Thursday’s events and the shooting’s victims:
Everything we know about the Plymouth shooting so far
Six dead, including gunman, after mass shooting in Plymouth
‘You have got to think about how we deal with these men'
Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for the North West, has said that if incels and extreme misogyny were treated as terrorism then authorities would have more powers to investigate it.
He told BBC Breakfast on Saturday: “You have got to think about how we deal with these men, and they are always men. What are they saying online, how are they being radicalised, who is doing the radicalisation.
“If you treat it as terrorism then you have other options open to you in terms of intelligence gathering, in terms of being able to prosecute for disseminating materials, in terms of being able to hold them to account if they are conspiring with each other.
“So, there are other potential offences available if you treat it as terrorism, but of course as we currently know that’s not what the government’s intention is.”
PA
Tributes left to victims in Keyham
Flowers, balloons and messages have been left to the victims of the mass shooting and their families in the Keyham area of Plymouth on Saturday.
It comes after a vigil was held the night before, which was attended by hundreds.
Dunblane victim’s brother calls for gun ownership changes
The brother of a five-year-old girl murdered during the Dunblane massacre has called for recreational ownership of guns to be outlawed following Thursday’s mass shooting in Plymouth.
Colin Drury reports:
Dunblane victim’s brother calls for ‘recreational’ gun ownership to be outlawed after Plymouth massacre
‘There should be no place in the UK for such use of firearms. Your sport is not worth the potential lives lost’
Police presence in Keyham
Police remain in the Keyham area of Plymouth on Saturday following the shooting two days before.
Images showed vehicles and officers at the scene of attacks:
Return of firearms licence to gunman
Sir Peter Fahy, former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said investigators will have to look into what enquiries were made into Plymouth gunman Jake Davison before his firearms licence was returned to him.
When asked on BBC Breakfast if it was “reasonable” for someone’s licence to to be returned to them within a year of being revoked, he said it depended on the “circumstances of the case”.
Sir Peter added: “There may have been one particular incident that person has overcome and further enquiries show that that person is not a threat with a firearm and, therefore, the firearm can be returned.
“Obviously, in hindsight, in light of this incredible tragedy, that decision now looks very, very questionable.
“But the investigators will have to look at what information was available to the police at that time and how far their investigations at that time went.”
Who were the victims?
Devon and Cornwall Police have confirmed the identities of the five people that were killed in the mass shooting in Plymouth on Thursday.
Leonie Chao-Fong has more on the victims killed in the attack:
Plymouth shooting victims named
Five people were killed in the shooting spree that lasted six minutes on Thursday
Estimated 10,000 people who share incel views in country - former chief crown prosecutor
Former chief crown prosecutor for the North West Nazir Afzal told BBC Breakfast on Saturday there were 10,000 people with incel views like Jake Davison in the country.
He said: “How many of them, a small minority, are a threat?
“We have to recognise that we have a responsibility to identify them and share that information.”
PA
Home secretary visits Keyham
Priti Patel has visited Keyham in Plymouth to pay tribute to the victims of the shooting.
The home secretary laid flowers at North Down Crescent Park on Saturday.
Ms Patel was joined by the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police Shaun Sawyer, who also laid a large bouquet of white flowers.
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