Plymouth shooting: Facebook removes Jake Davison’s profile after deadly attack
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Your support makes all the difference.Facebook says it has removed Jake Davison, the Plymouth shooter who killed five people, from its platforms.
The company followed YouTube in removing his profiles from its platform in the wake of the mass shooting.
Before it was taken down, the Facebook account had followed and shared a number of pages associated with right-wing US politics and guns.
But he was seemingly less active on Facebook than he was on YouTube, where he had posted videos of himself where he discussed topics related to the misogynistic “incel” – or involuntarily celibate – community, as well as also liking posts about guns.
Facebook said that the profile had been removed as part of its dangerous individuals and organisations policy, which does not allow mass murderers to be on Facebook or Instagram.
Davison’s account on Reddit, where he was posting in incel forums, was active until Friday evening.
His account shows posts in which he complained about his life, his inability to get a girlfriend, and his mother – who was one of the five people he killed other than himself.
The Independent found at 8pm on Friday that his Reddit account had been suspended.
Police on Friday named the shooter as Jake Davison, a 22-year-old trainee crane operator. He turned his gun on himself after killing the five victims on Thursday evening, the police said.
Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said police had found no motive but they were not considering terrorism or any far-right associations, although they were trawling through Davison’s computer.
“We believe we have an incident that is domestically related, that has spilled into the street and seen several people within Plymouth losing their lives in an extraordinarily tragic circumstance,” Sawyer told reporters.
The shooting started at about 6 p.m. on Thursday, first killing a 51-year-old woman whom Davison knew in a house. He then ran outside and immediately shot dead the young girl in the street along with her 43-year-old male relative.
Davison shot at two other passers-by who were badly injured, then entered a park and shot dead another man before killing another woman.
He then turned the gun on himself before firearms officers could tackle him. The deadly shooting spree was over in just a few minutes.
Sawyer said witnesses described the weapon as a pump-action shotgun. He could not say whether or not Davison had mental health issues. Davison had a firearms licence.
Additional reporting by Reuters