How the sick stampede of the Plymouth gunman unfolded and left five innocent people dead

The stampede lasted just 12 minutes – but it killed five innocent people and their killer and the entire nation was in shock.

Jake Davison’s shooting spree in a quiet suburb of Plymouth on a summer evening is the worst in Britain in more than a decade.

The first warning to residents was in the cul-de-sac of Biddick Drive, when 22-year-old Davison broke into the house he shared with his mother and began screaming Thursday evening.

However, the heated debate quickly turned deadly.

His killing spree began shortly before 6.11 p.m., when panicked neighbors made a flurry of 999 calls to the Devon and Cornwall police control rooms.

He told operators that they could hear gunshots and there was a man with a pump-action shotgun that was killing people at random.

A witness, 57-year-old Sharon Turner, who lives nearby, said Davison kicked in the door of a property—now called her own home—where she pointed a gun at her 51-year-old mother, Maxine, who had cancer.

“First, there was the shouting, followed by a barrage of bullets—three, possibly four to begin with,” she said. ‘It was then that the shooter kicked on the door of a house and started shooting randomly. He ran away from home while shooting.

There were a lucky few survivors in their line of fire.

On his way, still holding arms, Davison, dressed in black and brown, said to a stunned passerby: ‘No worries, mate.’

But a moment later he shot Sophie Martin, a three-year-old girl who was pushing a toy pram across the street with her adoptive father, Lee, 43.

Mr Martin was shot in the back as he tried to save his daughter.

The pair – who had tried to escape – were then shot at least twice and from close range, killing them instantly.

Davison is said to have ‘hovered’ over his body for a moment after slaughtering him before taking him out on the road.

A retired resident, who lives in front and witnessed the murders from his kitchen window, said he ‘couldn’t believe what I was seeing’.

The shocked local said: ‘We were sitting in our kitchen when we heard shots fired in the street, so we looked outside.

‘A man was running with his little girl who was pushing a toy pram while running. There was no noise or scream, they were just running.

‘This man with the gun stopped about 15 feet away from them, raised his gun to his shoulder, and shot the man in the back.

‘He fell on his daughter, even though she was dying, protecting her.’

Speaking of Davison, the witness said: ‘He went up and stood over them and fired them inches away to finish.

‘It looked like he shot the man first in the head, then in the body, and I think that shot killed the child.

‘It’s on the sidewalk across the street from my house. You don’t see one murder, two people are killed in front of you every day. He was just shooting indiscriminately.

By now the armed police were going. But Davison, a crane driver who relatives claimed had mental health problems but was unable to find help amid the lockdown, was not finished.

Still on Biddick Drive, he targeted and shot two locals, named by family members as Ben Parsonage, 33, and his mother, Michelle, 53, who first went out to help the victims. Were. Both suffered ‘significant’ injuries but survived.

Ben’s brother, Jordan, confirmed that his brother and mother had been caught in the massacre.

In a message later posted on social media, he said: ‘Just a little update… Ben is now at home and is going to make a full recovery.

‘My mother has to undergo a hand operation and she is expected to make a full recovery.’

Peggy Holiday, an intern at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, was on her way to a store when she heard screaming. Bullets also fired in what he thought was initially fireworks.

He said: ‘Two shots fired and I ran in front of a pub and the owner came out and he yelled at me, ‘Come in, come in now!’

‘I rolled forward in the pub and I literally stuck under one of the pool tables for dear life and I froze.

‘I said, ‘The shooting is happening, it’s violent, it’s awful’. It literally felt like a living nightmare. It felt like I was being hunted.

Davison, who had a shotgun license, broke into a strip of open land known to locals in the Keyham area of ​​Plymouth, where he shot 59-year-old Stephen Washington, who was walking his two husky dogs . He died at the scene.

A witness said: ‘I went there to see if I could help and there was a man lying face down on the grass. He was apparently dead, and his two dogs were running free.’

Davison, who was still shooting haphazardly, turned to Royal Navy Avenue and then to Henderson Place where, ‘without a word’, he shot Kate Shepherd, 66, smoking a cigarette outside the Blush hairdressing salon Had been.

A 16-year-old boy, who was going to a supermarket when he saw the murder, said: ‘She fell to the floor and she just kept on walking. He didn’t say anything to her. I don’t know if she worked in a salon. A man in a hoodie came and laid his hand on his stomach wounds. I couldn’t believe what I saw.’

His friend Caitlin Grayling, 19, said: ‘The paramedics were working on the woman. I could see them moving up and down as they were pressing on his chest.

‘After a while they stopped and I thought she might have survived, but she didn’t.’ Police later confirmed that Mrs Shepherd had died at Derryford Hospital in Plymouth.

Davison then went back to the garage behind the barber, where he pointed the gun to his head and killed himself.

Another witness said: ‘He just looked around, pointed the gun at himself and opened fire. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was like a horror film.

By then, police, including armed officers from a nearby naval base, had reached Bidik Drive, where they discovered a scene of the massacre.

They quickly traced Davison’s footsteps and found his body. He was declared brought dead at 6.23 pm.

Survivor Burt Pinkerton told the BBC he had passed by the gunman, who had a ‘blank stare’, adding: ‘The man was walking towards me. I could smell bullets. It Could have been me.’