Horror of witnesses as they fled killer’s path

WITNESSES described their horror as they fled the path of taxi driver Derrick Bird, whose shooting rampage has left 12 people dead and 25 injured.

Shaken members of the public reported seeing the killer peering from behind the smashed windscreen of his car, his shotgun poking out through the broken window. Others described the aftermath of his attack, with victims lying dead where they were shot – their faces covered with blankets. Glenda Pears, who runs L&G Taxis, knew Bird and was close to the location of the initial shooting. She said a female taxi driver had to swerve to avoid Bird’s car. “He was driving and she saw the gun. She was hysterical and had to pull over and stop. The gun was hanging out of the window.

“We are just numb at the moment. We just want to know what he’s done it for.” The first shooting took place on Duke Street, Whitehaven, close to where Helen Owens works at solicitors office. “One of our secretaries was out at the time and she saw a guy lying dead on the ground covered with a sheet – she saw his trainers sticking out.”

It was a similar scene elsewhere along Bird’s route.

Gary Toomey, 38, said he found one of the victims bleeding on the doorstep of his Cringlethwaite home.

“I saw a car screeching off and a man saying ‘help me’. He was bleeding heavily from the side of his face.

“He said he dived out of the way of the shot and the man in the car pointed the gun down and shot him again in the back from about six feet away as he lay on the floor.” Sean King, from the Boot Inn in Boot, where Bird dumped his car, said he feared the gunman would come to his pub. “For us here at the time, you did get the feeling that this was a man who wanted to go out in some kind of blaze of glory. I was very concerned that he would pop up at the pub and it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

A taxi driver said he was picking up a fare in Whitehaven when he heard the first shots. “It’s total carnage... I heard the first shots and the next thing you know police were here.

“They started telling people to get in to the shops and to stay indoors.”

A woman was shot outside the home of Egremont resident Billy Boakes, 23.

He said he did not see the shooting but heard two gunshots at about 11am. “I went outside and saw the body of the woman lying outside my house.” Boakes said witnesses told him what had happened. “He stopped his car, got out of the car, got his gun out, went up to her and just shot her in the stomach... There were two more people just... down the road and nothing happened to them. It was obviously the case of him just shooting random people.”

During the hunt, the Sellafield nuclear plant said the site gates had been shut, but its operations were not affected.