Murder spree in Cumbria

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[Bat]

[reject]

too early for Family Guy references hey?

[Twirley]

OMG - I know people in Whitehaven. I'd better send some emails.

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[reject]

I was thinking of...
the song is the.....

calls.. (feck that wud be sick too) transport out of this thread....

[luke]

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Cumbria gunman Derrick Bird watched violent film before killings
Derrick Bird, the Cumbria gunman, spent the night before his killing spree watching a violent film at his best friend's house before asking, as he left: "Do you think I'm paranoid?"
By Andrew Alderson, Jasper Copping and Ben Leach
5 Jun 2010
telegraph.co.uk

Bird, 52, poured out his anger to his best friend and near neighbour Neil Jacques as they drank coffee together until 12.30am on the morning of the massacre. During the evening, Bird told Mr Jacques that he was furious with his twin brother, David, and the family solicitor, Kevin Commons. He also spoke about his money worries and fears that he could be imprisoned over tax evasion. As they talked, they watched On Deadly Ground, an action film involving multiple killings and starring Steven Seagal, which was on television. The next day David Bird, Mr Commons and 10 others were shot dead during the rampage in and around the town of Whitehaven in Cumbria that also left 11 people injured.

In an exclusive interview at his home in Rowrah, near Whitehaven, Mr Jacques told The Sunday Telegraph: "He [Bird] came to see me at my house because he had something on his mind. He got there at about 6 or 7pm and stayed till about 12.30am. He didn't have any alcohol, or food. Just coffee. He had something on his mind – that he was going to go to jail over tax evasion. I said he needed to talk to the solicitor [Mr Commons]. He was going to see the solicitor the next day. At the end of the film I said I would ring him tomorrow to find out about the meeting. The last thing he said to me was, 'Do you think I'm paranoid?' I said, 'You are. You're not going to jail for something like that.' "

Mr Jacques added: "He just seemed to be in another world. He didn't seem himself. He seemed sad, I suppose. That last time I saw him he was like a zombie. He had been like that for a few days. Very quiet and definitely not normal." Bird had recently approached his twin brother over the family's finances but was referred to Mr Commons, Mr Jacques said. "I couldn't see what they [David Bird and Mr Commons] had done wrong," he added.

Bird embarked on his killing spree early on Wednesday, first shooting dead David Bird and then killing Mr Commons, 60, at their homes in Lamplugh and Frizington, five miles apart. He then went on a shooting spree that lasted just over an hour and left 10 more people dead, including a fellow driver against whom Bird is believed to have held a grudge.

Mr Jacques, who works at the Sellafield nuclear plant, said Bird would regularly visit his home. Last week, Bird spoke to him about his financial worries on a number of occasions. “He wanted to talk about his money problems. He thought he was in proper trouble,” said Mr Jacques. Bird had told another friend that he had secreted £60,000 in a bank account which HM Revenue and Customs had recently discovered. He was worried he could go to prison. It is also believed Bird had argued with his brother over his terminally ill mother’s will. It is thought Bird had learned he was not going to get as much as he had expected. A further grudge was held against his fellow taxi drivers. His income had fallen in recent years and Bird felt that other drivers were unfairly taking passengers from him.

On Tuesday, Bird’s simmering resentment boiled over into an argument with at least three other drivers in Whitehaven. There were rumours last week that Mr Jacques was the unidentified friend who had reportedly tried to disarm Bird on Tuesday night. However, both Mr Jacques and Tanya Jacques, Mr Jacques’ youngest daughter, denied that they had wrestled firearms from Bird’s hands or that he had discussed using a gun. The revelations by Mr Jacques came as Cumbria police gave new details of Wednesday’s events and of their subsequent investigation. They said that senior officers had tried to speak to Bird on his mobile phone and cab radio while he was on his shooting rampage but he would not take their calls. Bird left no suicide note, but a third gun — a shotgun — was found in his terraced house for which, as with the rifle and shotgun he used for his killing spree, he had licences.

Detectives seized documents and a computer from his home, some of which relate to his financial affairs. Officers were working with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to look into allegations that Bird owed substantial tax arrears, police said. Bird had made five complaints to police in the past 12 years relating to theft, non-payment of a fare, assault and criminal damage to his vehicle but there was no suggestion he was unhappy with the way these matters were dealt with.

Officers said that Bird’s car, a Citroen Picasso, was damaged in a collision during his rampage and asked for anyone involved in a crash or who saw a crash to contact them. Stuart Hyde, the Deputy Chief Constable for Cumbria, admitted: “We may never know exactly what turned this man [Bird] from a taxi driver into a killer.”

The Sunday Telegraph can disclose that fellow cab drivers had become increasingly concerned by Bird’s state of mind. David Rickson, said: “A few months ago he mentioned to me that he needed to find a carer for his mother and her illness was clearly worrying him. He felt he had spent more time caring for his mother than either of his two brothers. Then he found out about the will, and what he found out wasn’t what he wanted to hear and it must have tipped him over the edge. He felt that people were ganging up against him and he saw an injustice because of how he had been caring for his mother.” His other brother Brian, 58, lives in Cumbria.

Mr Rickson said he had also noticed a change in Bird. “I’ve known Derrick for 15 to 20 years. We always got on well — he was a good bloke. But I noticed a real change in the two weeks before the killing. This dark cloud seemed to come down over him. He would turn up for work and then just sit in his car all day. I knew he had been having some financial troubles and I thought that he must have just become utterly depressed and miserable. A lot of the cabbies on the rank noticed it. We spoke about it the day before he went on the rampage.”