Cumbria shootings: Witnesses' horror

Barrie Moss, 43, of St Bees, was cycling home after visiting friends when he rode into the aftermath of the shooting of Susan Hughes at Orgill, Haggard End, Egremont.

Mr Moss described how Derrick Bird had shot her in the back with his telescopic rifle and then calmly drove off - leaving him alive and unscathed.

He said he and another man had desperately tried to save the woman but it was too late and she died at the scene.

Mr Moss described the incident - which lasted a matter of seconds - as like something out of a James Bond film.

The divorced father-of-four, told how he stumbled across Bird purely by chance while on his way home from Egremont.

"I came round the corner and there was a Citroen Picasso parked in the middle of the road with the driver side door wide open," the technical consultant said.

"I cycled up to it, thinking it was a bit strange and as I got up to it, it said taxi on the side.

"My first thought was that some teenagers had got out and run off into the estate and the taxi driver had got out and chased after them.

"When I got past I saw a short, fat guy looking up the hill and I thought that's got to be the taxi driver.

"I turned round and very briefly got a look at his face and there was no expression.

"But my eyes were drawn to a massive telescopic sight, sniper rifle. It just looked like something out of a James Bond movie.

"My thought was that it was a prop or something. He stared at me, probably not for very long, but seems longer now.

"He scurried into the car and drove down the hill. It was only when he had driven off that I saw a body slumped on the pavement.

"I looked and I shouted out: 'Are you okay?'

"There was two bags of shopping and a handbag dropped as well.

"I said 'Are you okay love?'.

"There was no response and she did not move. I stopped the bike and I was going to get off and there was a 20-year-old woman pushing a pram up the hill. She got to about 10ft away, stopped and screamed.

"I thought 'Oh my God, there's something wrong.'"

Mr Moss then said he called the police and ran over to where Susan Hughes was lying.

"I went over to the lady and it was obvious that there was something quite majorly wrong," he said.

"She was unconscious but still breathing, but very laboured breathing. We were shaking her to try and wake her, so she'd start breathing again.

"There were sirens everywhere but no one was coming to us.

"Then someone ran out from the houses and said 'There's a madman loose shooting people'.

"It was then we thought. 'Oh my God, this is what's happened to her'."

Mr Moss said that he and another man, a friend called Stewart, tried to help.

"There was nothing we could do," he said.

Eyewitness Cecil Telford, of Parton, near Whitehaven, told The Westmorland Gazette: "We went shopping into town and as we came to Duke Street I could see a body on the floor.

"There was a pair of feet hanging out from a blanket, which had been placed over the person. It was very shocking for me and my wife.

"All of the shops, apart from Morrisons, were closed in the vicinity."

A woman was shot outside the home of Egremont resident Billy Boakes, 23.

He said he did not see the shooting but heard two gunshots at around 11am.

Mr Boakes said: “I thought nothing of it at first, I thought it was just a trailer banging as it went down the lane but then I looked out the front window two minutes later and saw a car and a push bike parked up and thought there had been an accident.

”I went outside and saw the body of the woman lying outside my house.”

He added: “She was just on the pavement with a couple of shopping bags in her hand.”

Mr Boakes said he believed the woman used to care for a disabled girl and thought she was aged in her 60s.

He said witnesses told him what had happened.

”He stopped his car, got out the car, got his gun out, went up to her and just shot her in the stomach,” he said.

”There were two more people just further down the road and nothing happened to them. It was obviously the case of him just shooting random people.”

Sean King, from the Boot Inn in Boot, where Derrick Bird dumped his car, said he feared the gunman would come to his pub.

He said: “I can only imagine what’s going on with the people that have been seriously hurt or involved in any way in this.

"But for us here at the time you did get the feeling that this was a man who wanted to go out in some kind of blaze of glory.

”I was very concerned that he would pop up here at the pub and it would be like shooting fish in a barrel really.”

A taxi driver with Gosforth Taxis, who asked not to be named, said he was picking up a fare in Whitehaven when he heard the first shots.

”It’s total carnage,” he said.

”I was in Whitehaven this morning, I heard the first shots and the next thing you know police were here, there and everywhere.

”They started telling people to get in to the shops and to stay indoors.

”I heard a couple police officers say a taxi driver had been killed.

”Later on it sounds like he was just picking people off out the window of his car.”

Helen Owens, who works at solicitors’ practice Brockbank, Cain and Hall on Duke Street in Whitehaven, said one of her colleagues saw a dead man on the street.

She said: “We heard a couple of gunshots and the police running about.

”One of our secretaries was out at the time and she saw a guy lying dead on the ground covered with a sheet - she saw his trainers sticking out.

”There’s police tape across it so we can’t see exactly what happened but saw a policeman running across the street.

”We have also heard there was another shooting at Morrisons car park, which is about five minutes away.

”We have the door locked.

”There’s a police station two minutes away, very close to it.”

Janis Howes, 63, who lives in Duke Street, said that she heard bangs but initially assumed it was a road accident.

She said: “We get a lot of bumps from people having accidents coming around the corner so when I heard the noise I looked out of the window and couldn’t see anything.

”Later when I went out somebody came out of a shop door and said ‘you’ve got to get off the street’. We were stuck in Peacocks until I asked to go back home.

”You just don’t expect this. I saw a body, the police had covered it up and I could see the legs.

"You see people who have collapsed in the street but when you realise it’s a body it’s not at all the same.”

One woman, who did not want to be named, said: “They said on the news that someone had died and it’s just horrific that this happened in a quiet place.

"It’s a peaceful harbour town, very quiet. We have had family calling to make sure everyone is OK, it’s a very uncomfortable time.”

A cafe owner has told The Westmorland Gazette how police ordered her and residents of Broughton-in-Furness to 'get inside' amid reports of a gunman on the loose.

Jane Rousseau, who runs The Square, said her eatery was packed full of people who were taking shelter after a man, believed to be Derrick Bird, shot dead several people in west Cumbria.

She said: "I went outside and a police car screeched to a halt and the officer said 'get inside, there's a man with a gun on the loose'.

"It was quite dramatic and I just locked the door and sent all the children up to the attic, because we had no idea what was going to happen.

"It seems to be indiscriminate shooting."

An Ambleside man has told of how the drama unfolded this morning.

Leslie Johnson, chairman of Lakes Parish Council, said: "I was in the village at 10.30am and a police car went speeding past - with sirens blaring and lights flashing - stopping traffic through the village.

"He was closely followed by an ambulance. They are telling people to stay indoors which is going to be a difficult task as, on a day like today, many people will want to be outdoors."

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.”

One woman who lives in Egremont said she had seen a body lying on a road bridge in the town.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: “One of them is lying down on the bridge.

”We suspect it’s a man but the body is covered up now.

”It was about 11.15 and we heard this bang.

"I looked up and there was a couple of cars on the bridge so we just thought it had been a collision.

”It was only when a neighbour came and said ‘someone has been shot’ that I heard.”

Rod Davies, landlord of Gosforth Hall Inn, has been talking to businesses in the tight-knit community throughout the day.

Mr Davies, who has lived in Gosforth since 2002, said: “The guy flipped for whatever reason. Whether it was pre-meditated, we don’t know.

”We’ve heard he returned home and shot his mother. Then he has gone on a spree to Seascale, where he’s believed to have caused two fatalities.

”He then left Seascale and went through Gosforth where he’s believed to have killed a local farmer, and shot him at point-blank range.

”He’s then headed to the valley where Boot is.”

Mr Davies said that shortly after they heard the man had arrived in Boot, police called to inform him it was safe to leave his property.

”I’m welling up as I knew the local farmer who is believed to be killed,” he said.

”We’re a very close community, it will be felt across the whole area.

”We’re used to ‘neighbour’s cat missing’ stories making the news - not this sort of thing.”

* Were you in an area where shootings have taken place? Contact the newsroom on 01539 710154.