Horden shooting

Last updated

Horden shooting
Location Horden, County Durham, England, UK
Date1 January 2012
Attack type
mass shooting, murder-suicide
Weapon shotgun
Deaths4 (including the perpetrator)
Injured1
PerpetratorMichael Atherton

The Horden shooting was a mass shooting in Horden, England, on 1 January 2012, also called the New Year's Day shooting. 42-year-old Michael Atherton shot his partner Susan McGoldrick, her sister Alison Turnbull and her daughter Tanya Turnbull with a shotgun, before killing himself. [1] They were all killed in Atherton's home, where three others escaped from an upstairs window, one of whom had suffered minor injuries from the spray of the gun. [2]

Contents

Background

Michael Atherton, a taxi driver, had a licence which allowed him to legally own firearms, six in total - three of which were shotguns. Despite having his guns confiscated in 2008 by police, they were later returned. [3]

He was arrested for affray at a local club, and months later armed police were called to his home after he threatened to "blow his head off" to his family. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunblane massacre</span> Mass shooting in Dunblane, Scotland

The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pupils and one teacher, and injured 15 others, before killing himself. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungerford massacre</span> Fatal shooting of 16 people in Hungerford, England

The Hungerford massacre was a spree shooting in Hungerford, England, United Kingdom, on 19 August 1987, when 27-year-old Michael Ryan shot and killed sixteen people, including an unarmed police officer and his own mother, before shooting himself. The shootings, committed using a handgun and two semi-automatic rifles, occurred at several locations, including a school he had once attended. Fifteen other people were also shot but survived. No firm motive for the killings has ever been established.

In the United Kingdom, access by the general public to firearms is subject to control measures. However, fulfilment of the criteria and requirements as laid out by the laws results in the vast majority of firearm licence applications being approved. Laws differ slightly in Northern Ireland due to Northern Ireland having its own firearms legislation. Concerns have been raised over the availability of illegal firearms.

The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was an act of mass murder which occurred at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984. The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others before being killed by a police sniper approximately 77 minutes after he had first opened fire.

The Red Lake shootings were a spree killing that occurred on March 21, 2005, in two places on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. That afternoon, 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend at their home. After taking his grandfather's police weapons and bulletproof vest, Weise drove his grandfather's police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he had been a student some months before.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trolley Square shooting</span> Mass shooting at shopping mall in Utah

The Trolley Square shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on the evening of February 12, 2007, at Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah. A gunman identified as Sulejman Talović killed five bystanders and wounded four others before being shot dead by several members of the Salt Lake City Police Department. Authorities were not able to determine a motive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbria shootings</span> 2010 shooting spree in Cumbria, England

The Cumbria shootings was a shooting spree which occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, taxi driver Derrick Bird, killed twelve people and injured eleven others in Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre and the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, it is one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in British history. The shootings ended when Bird killed himself in a wooded area after abandoning his car in the village of Boot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Northumbria Police manhunt</span> Search for fugitive Raoul Moat

The 2010 Northumbria Police manhunt was a major police operation conducted across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland with the objective of apprehending fugitive Raoul Moat. After killing one person and wounding two others in a two-day shooting spree in July 2010, the 37-year-old ex-prisoner went on the run for nearly a week. The manhunt concluded near the town of Rothbury, Northumberland, when Moat killed himself following a six-hour standoff with armed police officers under the command of Northumbria Police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass shooting</span> Incident involving multiple victims of firearm violence

A mass shooting is a crime in which an attacker kills or injures multiple individuals simultaneously using a firearm. There is no widely-accepted definition of "mass shooting" and different organizations tracking such incidents use different definitions. Definitions of mass shootings exclude warfare and sometimes exclude instances of gang violence, armed robberies, and familicides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting</span> Mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, US

On July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, United States, during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises. Dressed in tactical clothing, 24-year-old James Holmes set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms. Twelve people were killed and 70 others were injured, 58 of them from gunfire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting</span> 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, US

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and murdered 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and the other six were adult staff members. Earlier that day, before driving to the school, Lanza had murdered his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the school, Lanza died by suicide, shooting himself in the head.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Spalding shooting</span> Violent murder-suicide in Lincolnshire

On 19 July 2016, a shooting occurred at the Castle Sports Complex in the town centre of Spalding in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Three people, including the perpetrator, were killed in the shooting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas tower shooting</span> 1966 mass shooting in Austin, Texas, US

The University of Texas tower shooting was an act of mass murder which occurred on August 1, 1966, at the University of Texas at Austin. The perpetrator, 25-year-old Marine veteran Charles Whitman, indiscriminately fired at members of the public both within the Main Building tower and from the tower's observation deck. He shot and killed 15 people, including an unborn child, and injured 31 others before he was killed by two Austin Police Department officers approximately 96 minutes after first opening fire from the observation deck.

The 2018 Toronto shooting, known locally as the Danforth shooting, was a mass shooting that occurred on Danforth Avenue in the Greektown neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the night of July 22, 2018. Faisal Hussain killed two people and wounded thirteen using a Smith & Wesson M&P .40-calibre handgun. He died by suicide after a shootout with Toronto Police Service (TPS) officers. While police were unwilling to give a motive for the shooting after a yearlong investigation, it is clear from the aftermath that the shooting was inspired and rooted in incel-related violence.

On April 18 and 19, 2020, Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Enfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indianapolis FedEx shooting</span> Mass shooting in Indianapolis, Indiana

On April 15, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Nine people were killed, including the gunman, 19-year-old former employee Brandon Scott Hole, who committed suicide. Seven others were injured, including four by gunfire. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Indiana.

The Plymouth shooting occurred in Keyham, Plymouth, Devon, England, United Kingdom, on 12 August 2021. The gunman, 22-year-old Jake Davison, shot and killed five people and injured two others before fatally shooting himself. Devon and Cornwall Police have not identified a motive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Raleigh shootings</span> Mass shooting in North Carolina

On October 13, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in the Hedingham neighborhood of Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Five people were killed, and two others were injured. The accused, a male juvenile named Austin Thompson, was detained after being cornered by police at a nearby residence and was in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the head sustained during the incident. Thompson survived his head injury and has begun to receive physical rehabilitation. He was transferred from a hospital to the medical unit of a juvenile correctional facility.

On January 4, 2023, a familicide occurred in Enoch, Utah, United States when eight members of a single family, consisting of three adults and five children, were fatally shot in their home in a mass shooting. Authorities identified one of the adults, 42-year-old Michael Haight, as the perpetrator. Haight had been investigated by the Enoch Police Department for domestic abuse allegations in 2020. Two weeks prior to the killings, his wife had commenced divorce proceedings.

References

  1. "Gun victims' family 'devastated'". BBC News. 4 January 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  2. "Police name gunman and three victims in Durham shooting". BBC News. 2 January 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  3. "Horden shootings: IPCC highlights Durham Police failings". BBC News. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
  4. "Horden shooting family in gun control law petition". BBC News. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2022.