Horden shooting | |
---|---|
Location | Horden, County Durham, England, UK |
Date | 1 January 2012 |
Attack type | mass shooting, murder-suicide |
Weapon | shotgun |
Deaths | 4 (including the perpetrator) |
Injured | 1 |
Perpetrator | Michael 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. 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.
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.
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.
See also
- Cumbria shootings
- List of massacres in Great Britain
- List of mass shootings in the United Kingdom
- Plymouth shooting
References
- "Gun victims' family 'devastated'". BBC News. 4 January 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- "Police name gunman and three victims in Durham shooting". BBC News. 2 January 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- "Horden shootings: IPCC highlights Durham Police failings". BBC News. 19 November 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- "Horden shooting family in gun control law petition". BBC News. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- 2010s in County Durham
- 2010s mass shootings in the United Kingdom
- 2012 in England
- 2012 mass shootings in Europe
- 2012 murders in the United Kingdom
- 21st-century mass murder in England
- January 2012 crimes in Europe
- January 2012 events in the United Kingdom
- Crime in County Durham
- Deaths by firearm in England
- Mass murder in 2012
- Mass shootings in England
- Murder–suicides in the United Kingdom
- Mass shootings involving shotguns