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How the Cumbria guns massacre unfolded

Press Association
Thursday 03 June 2010 11:13 EDT

Here is a timeline of how yesterday's terrifying events unfolded:

* About 5.30am - Derrick Bird is seen lurking outside the home of one of his victims by a former schoolmate.

Shop worker Iris Carruthurs, 49, who was out walking her dogs near the home of solicitor Kevin Commons, says: "He didn't speak, he was in a world of his own."

* Before 10am - Derrick Bird leaves his home in the village of Rowrah and begins the massacre. His first victim is thought to be his twin brother David in High Trees, Lamplugh, following a family feud over a will;

* Family solicitor Kevin Commons, 60, is found dead from shotgun wounds on the driveway of his home in Yeat House Road, Frizington;

* 10.35am - Bird guns down fellow taxi drivers in Duke Street, Whitehaven, killing Darren Rewcastle and shooting former soldier Don Reed in the back. Mr Reed crawled away on his hands and knees. Emergency services are called to Duke Street, Whitehaven.

Eyewitnesses see Bird driving through the town with his gun hanging out of the window.

Shortly afterwards, police urge people in Whitehaven, Egremont and Seascale to stay indoors;

* From 11am - Kenneth Fishburn, a retired Sellafield worker in his 60s, is shot dead on the old bridge in Egremont.

Susan Hughes, thought to be in her 60s, is killed as she walks home with her shopping. She is found lying in the street in Orgill, Hagget End, Egremont, with her shopping still in her hands;

* Bird moves on to the village of Wilton, where he fatally shoots pensioner Jennifer Jackson.

Her husband James, who used to work for the ambulance service, is also shot dead as he comes looking for his wife;

* Bird shoots Isaac Dixon in a field while the part-time mole catcher is in conversation with a farmer near Carleton Wood;

* In Gosforth, Bird shoots rugby league player Garry Purdham at point blank range as he works in a field;

* Bird kills cyclist Michael Pike, 64, and Jane Robinson, in her 70s, who was delivering home shopping catalogues, in Drigg Road, Seascale.

Bird also opens fire on 23-year-old estate agent Jamie Clark, who was driving through Seascale at the time. It is unclear whether it was one of Bird's bullets or the resulting crash in Gosforth Road which killed him.

A landlord, named locally as Harry Berger, is also shot in the arm in Seascale;

* 12.41pm - Officers name the suspect as Derrick Bird, 52, from Rowrah, near Frizington, and issue a photograph of him;

* 1.04pm - Police reveal that Bird has abandoned his car near the hamlet of Boot and is now believed to be on foot;

* 1.30pm - The Sellafield nuclear plant near Seascale goes into lockdown;

* 1.40pm - Bird's body is found in a wooded area near Boot;

* 5.25pm - Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde says 12 people were killed by Bird and a further 25 were injured.

He adds that officers are investigating at 30 separate crime scenes;

* 8.20pm - The Queen releases a statement saying she is "deeply shocked" by the shootings in Cumbria and shares the country's "grief and horror".

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