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Cumbria shootings: gunman friends with victim

By Channel 4 News

Updated on 02 June 2010

Taxi driver Derrick Bird was "friends with" one of his victims, it has been claimed. At least four people are dead following Mr Bird's shooting spree in Cumbria.

Derrick Bird

A taxi company boss said one of her drivers witnessed the aftermath of the shooting at a rival taxi rank in Whitehaven.

Glenda Pears, who runs L&G Taxis, said both Mr Bird and the Duke Street victim were self-employed drivers - and friends. She said Mr Bird had been a taxi driver for 23 years and was divorced with two sons. She described him as a "real nice man".

She said: "We just don't know what's happened. The lad that's been killed was friends with him. They used to stand together having a craic on the rank. "He was friends with everybody and used to stand and joke on Duke Street."

She said a female taxi driver working for her had to swerve to avoid Mr Bird's car immediately after the first shooting.

She said: "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. She's still shaken up because they've not caught him.

"We are just numb at the moment. We just want to know what he's done it for. He's such a nice lad. One of my drivers was talking to him last night. He was just working as normal and was going to go to Tesco's to get chicken."

Celia MacKenzie, chief executive of the Rum Story, a tourist attraction in Whitehaven, said police ordered a lockdown when the shooting began.

She said: "The police advised the owners to lock the doors and not let anybody in that they didn't know." The doors stayed locked for around 40-45 minutes, she said. "The police advised people all around the area that there should be a lockdown."

A spokesman for Low Mill Ranges, a firearms supplier in West Cumbria, told Channel 4 News: "We have got absolutely no knowledge of the gunman, nor is he a member of our gun club. Our thoughts go out to the relatives of those killed and injured.

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