Estranged father shoots child, partner and himself
Four-year-old girl dies at scene of triple shooting while mother was injured
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A four-year-old girl was shot in the head at point-blank range by her father yesterday, apparently as he rowed with her mother over rights to see the child.
As the girl collapsed to the ground with fatal brain injuries, the man opened fire on her mother, from whom he had recently separated, leaving her critically injured. The child was still alive when emergency workers reached her, but died in their arms as they tried desperately to keep her breathing. The girl's mother was last night critically ill and fighting for life after being airlifted to hospital for emergency brain surgery.
Close to where the girl lay, inside what had until recently been the family home, was the body of her father, a builder, who had also shot himself in the head. The couple were named by neighbours as Andy Copland and Julie Harrison, and their daughter's name was Maisie.
Julie and Maisie had arrived at the house in Aldershot, Hampshire, where the child was, by arrangement, to have spent the day with her father. But Copland was said to be angry and upset when he opened the door. The couple, who had split up four weeks ago, then began arguing, according to neighbours.
Moments later Copland, 56, apparently produced a gun and aimed it straight at his daughter's head before pulling the trigger. Ms Harrison, who is in her forties, was also shot in the head but survived and was taken by helicopter to St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London. She was last night understood to be in a critical, though stable, condition.
Police were called to the scene by neighbours who heard the shooting around 10am yesterday. The first officers to the scene found the young girl bleeding profusely, and it proved impossible to resuscitate her. The gun was found alongside the body of her father. Detective Inspector Darren Rawlings, speaking outside the house in the garrison town last night, said officers had been met by a "very traumatic" scene.
"This is a tragic death of a four-year-old child. We need to find out why this has happened, and exactly what happened in the premises this morning," he said. He added: "At this stage the evidence would suggest that it was a domestic incident. The person in the house has discharged a firearm. We are not seeking anyone else at the moment." It was thought that the weapon used was a shotgun.
Neighbours told how Ms Harrison had driven her Renault car to drop the child off at the house in Church Hill, Aldershot, where the child's father still lived. It is understood that the couple had argued previously over the custody arrangements for their daughter.
Copland was described by a family friend as a "nasty piece of work" who was temperamental, violent and capable of exploding with rage.
A tool-shop worker, Scott Large, said his neighbour worked in the building trade: "I knew the guy and he seemed a friendly, genuine guy who I used to say hello to. He used to be like that with everybody. I knew that he lived there with a woman and a child."
But yesterday morning "one of the neighbours came up and said there had been some form of altercation and not to go near ... The next thing I knew, police, ambulances and the whole lot turned up. I really can't believe it. This is a sort of dozy, quiet sort of place."