Plymouth Gunman Who Killed Five People Identified as ‘Incel’ Crane Operator Jake Davison

The Plymouth gunman who murdered five people on Thursday night has been identified as Jake Davison. 

The 23-year-old, armed with a long-barreled gun, reportedly kicked in the door to a home on Biddick Drive at around 6 pm Thursday evening before shooting his mother, his sister, and his brother. Davison then proceeded to shoot two additional victims in the area, before turning the gun on himself, police have said. 

Speaking to the BBC, an eyewitness named Sharron said what happened was “horrendous and so sad.”

“Firstly, there was shouting, followed by gunshots - three possibly four to begin with. This was when the shooter kicked in the door of a house and randomly started shooting. He ran from the house shooting as he ran and proceeded to shoot at a few people in the linear park up from the drive. The shooter proceeded along Royal Navy Avenue still shooting.”

While not much is known about Davison as of the time of writing, the shooter’s Facebook contains American imagery - including a PragerU infographic of the former US President Donald Trump - and states that he was born in Arizona, USA. An associated YouTube channel contains videos of the crane operator talking about his identification with the ‘doomer’ and ‘incel’ movements, with a video uploaded on July 28th outlining the Plymouth man’s “lack of willpower.” A second video uploaded on Sunday appeared to glorify the ‘Helghast’ - the disgruntled antagonists of the Killzone series of video games. 

“In the games and the overall appearance [the Helghast] are presented as the bad guys,” Davison wrote in the description of the video. “But once you read and learn about their history and lore you realise they never were they were given the shit end of the stick were outcasted forgotten forced to endure a life of hardship due to UCN/Earths greed. They were hampered as to ensure UCN's dominance and finally decided after centuries of oppression ‘no more we deserve a place in this universe we deserve our chance at life. It reminds me a lot of what a lot of blackpillers/doomers/outcasts/incels that are on here. Properly can sympathise in many ways.”

Speaking about the incident, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport MP Luke Pollard said Davison’s actions were “unspeakably awful” and that he was “utterly devastated” to learn one of those killed was a child. Tweeting later, the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said: 

“The incident in Plymouth is shocking and my thoughts are with those affected. I have spoken to the chief constable and offered my full support. I urge everyone to remain calm, follow police advice and allow our emergency services to get on with their jobs.”