Plymouth Shooting: Local resident 'heard gunshots going off' outside his home

13 August 2021, 15:34

Plymouth Shooting: Local resident 'heard gunshots going off' outside his home

By Tim Dodd

This is the moment a resident local to the Plymouth shooting, whose neighbour was killed, told LBC he was sat in his house as gunshots were "going off outside."

It comes as the gunman who killed five people and himself in Thursday night's Plymouth shooting has officially been named as 22-year-old Jake Davison.

Joshua in Devonport told Andrew Castle: "I was shopping in a nearby Lidl when I got a message from my girlfriend saying something's going on nearby.

"We have two young children so the first thing I did was rush back home as I had reports from a neighbour that something was going on.

"To describe it, I can't really describe it in words. We're sat there as a family and we hear these gunshots going off outside.

"Imagine your street that you grew up on from a young lad, and where kids ride their bikes on a daily basis, and you're in your home and outside you're hearing gunshots and you're hearing people are dying."

Jake Davison named as killer of five, including 'very young girl'

Joshua then said if he'd known what was going on prior to travelling home he would've likely "stayed in the shop."

"You don't think it's gunshots, Andrew, it can't be gunshots, so I went back home," he said.

"The stuff I saw yesterday, it's probably going to stay with me for the rest of my life."

Read more: 'Unspeakably awful': Community grieves after six die in Plymouth shooting

Andrew then asked: "What have your neighbours been saying, have you been checking on each other?"

"Well unfortunately one of our neighbours was fatally wounded yesterday.

"Of the people who are injured, several people we've known."

Read more: Woman arrested on suspicion of murder after death of two-year-old boy

Devon and Cornwall Police (DCP) said six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds during the tragedy in Keyham.

Among those was a three-year-old girl and her 43-year-old male relative, police confirmed, which had previously been reported by Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Luke Pollard.

A 51-year-old woman who was known to the gunman, as well as a 59-year-old man and a 66-year-old woman, also died in the incident.

Two other members of the public have significant but non-life-threatening injuries.