Family struggle to understand what turned quiet man into mass murderer

THE family of gunman Derrick Bird were last night struggling to understand what turned the quiet taxi driver into a mass killer.

Police said the 52-year-old was licensed to own the two guns he used in his three-hour rampage in Cumbria, had only one minor conviction, and was not known to have any mental health problems.

His elderly mother, Mary Bird, was said to be “stunned” after learning that her son had murdered his twin brother, their family solicitor and 10 other people before killing himself in a massacre which shocked the nation.

Locals suggested Bird might have snapped over a dispute involving a will or following an argument in which he accused other cabbies of stealing his passengers.

One of Bird’s two sons, Graeme, yesterday visited his mother – Bird’s ex-partner – Linda Mills, but refused to speak.

However, the three daughters of the gunman’s twin, David, who was one of his first victims, insisted there was “absolutely no family feud” and added: “Our dad’s only downfall was to try and help his brother.”

They went on: “We would also like to send our condolences to all the other families and people involved in this tragic incident. Our thoughts are with them also.”

One of Bird’s cousins spoke of Mrs Bird’s shock at being told the horrific manner in which her twin sons had died.

Joy Ryan said: “She was just stunned. She just couldn’t make sense of it. She kept saying she wanted to talk to them, she wanted to talk to her sons.”

It emerged yesterday that Bird was dismissed from his job as a joiner at the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria in 1990 after being convicted of stealing from his employer. But he received only a 12-month suspended sentence, and was allowed to obtain a shotgun licence in 1995 and a firearms licence for a rifle in 2007.

Critics questioned whether police could have kept the death toll lower by stopping Bird sooner, as it was revealed that he was seen lurking near the house of one of his victims early yesterday.

Former schoolmate Iris Carruthers, 49, saw the gunman in his car outside the home of family solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, in the village of Frizington as she walked her dogs at about 5.30am.

She said: “He passed me and went down to the bottom of the main road, turned, and he came back up. Slowly he drove alongside me and I said ‘Hiya lad, you all right?’.

“He didn’t speak, he was in a world of his own, and I just kept on walking.

“He was stationed at the gate on the way up to the tip road (to the recycling facility). I just left him there.

“I thought he was just normal, I didn’t think there was anything untoward. I just thought he had been to the farm and dropped somebody off because he was in his taxi. I never thought any more of it.”

It is not clear when Mr Commons was killed, but he was found dead from shotgun wounds on the driveway of his home yesterday afternoon.

Bird, a father of two who recently became a grandfather, is thought to have left his house in the village of Rowrah later that morning armed with a shotgun and .22 rifle with telescopic sight.

He drove to nearby Lamplugh, where he gunned down his twin brother, then continued to the town of Whitehaven, where he shot at least three fellow taxi drivers, killing Darren Rewcastle.

A second cabbie, former soldier Don Reed, was shot in the back, but managed to crawl away on his hands and knees.

Bird then travelled south through the picturesque Cumbrian countryside, blasting people he encountered along the way in Egremont, Wilton, Gosforth and Seascale, apparently at random.

His other victims were: estate agent Jamie Clark, 23; rugby league player and farmer Garry Purdham, 31; retired couple Jennifer and James Jackson; part-time mole-catcher Isaac Dixon; mother-of-two Susan Hughes, 57; unmarried pensioner Jane Robinson, 66; former Sellafield worker Kenneth Fishburn; and retired Michael Pike, 64.

Another 11 adults were wounded, some of them very seriously.

Six remained in hospital yesterday.

Five of the survivors were shot in the face, two in the back, one in the back and arms, and another in the chest, doctors said.

Charles Brett, clinical director of West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, said: “It appears this gentleman was firing out of a car window at head height. It is clear that he was directing at the face and head.”

Those who survived encounters with Bird spoke of their lucky escapes yesterday.

Taxi driver Mr Reed described seeing Bird killing Mr Rewcastle in Whitehaven and then being shot himself.

He told the BBC: “I just took a flying dive and he caught me in the back. I went on the floor and then I crawled along the taxi rank. I was going to apply first aid to Darren, but, when I saw Darren, he was gone.”

Britain’s worst mass shooting since the 1996 Dunblane tragedy ended with the discovery of Bird’s body 20 miles from Whitehaven in woods near the hamlet of Boot at about 1.40pm on Wednesday.

Home Secretary Theresa May said police had confirmed that Bird’s gun licences covered the two weapons seized by officers after the massacre.

She welcomed debate about Britain’s gun laws but said it would be wrong to act until the full facts of the tragedy were known.

“When there are lessons to be learned, we will learn them, and when there are changes to be made, we will make them,” she told the Commons.

Ms May and Prime Minister David Cameron will visit Cumbria today to meet senior police officers.

Detective Chief Superintendent Iain Goulding, of Cumbria Police, said he and his officers were “absolutely determined” to get to the bottom of why the tragedy happened.

But he admitted: “It may not be possible to establish all the answers because we cannot speak to Derrick Bird.”

Questions were asked today about why police did not stop the killer more quickly.

Among messages of condolence left on the website of local paper the Whitehaven News was angry criticism of CumbriaPolice’s handling of the tragedy.

Bob Lunn wrote: “I feel sorry for the people who have died, and the family and friends that they left behind.

“But how was this guy not stopped sooner? I can understand the inevitable two or three people getting shot, but 12 dead?

“The police should have been all over it as soon as there was a reported shooting . . . The police have a lot to answer for in my opinion.”

A Cumbria Police spokeswoman said the force could not comment on the criticism.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said Cumbria Police would decide whether it needed to refer any matters to the watchdog “in due course”.