Family of gun killer ‘baffled’ by his crimes

THE sons of a cab driver who killed 12 people in a gun rampage across rural northwestern England described him as “the nicest man you could ever meet” yesterday, adding they were baffled by his crimes.

Derrick Bird, 52, killed his twin brother David and their family’s lawyer plus 10 other people and also injured 11. Most of the killings came as he drove around taking pot-shots at passers-by in the sleepy county of Cumbria.

In their first public comments on the tragedy, Bird’s two sons Graeme, 28, and Jamie, 16, said their father was a “loving, cheerful” man whose death had left them “devastated”.