By Prayer services to be held today in remembrance of Plymouth shooting victims
Prayer services will be held for the Plymouth shooting victims today as the city pays tribute to the five people who were tragically killed on Thursday.
Churches across Devon, including the church in Keyham – where the shootings took place – are expected to use their Sunday services today to remember the victims.
On Thursday evening, Jake Davison, 22, shot dead his 51-year-old mother Maxine Davison, also known as Maxine Chapman before killing Sophie Martyn, aged three, and her father Lee Martyn, aged 43.
He then went to a nearby park and killed Stephen Washington, 59, before shooting 66-year-old Kate Shepherd, who later died at Derriford Hospital.
He also shot and wounded a 33-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman before turning the gun on himself.
In response, questions are being raised as to how the gunman was able to obtain a firearms licence.
Sunday church services in the county will include a special prayer written by the Bishop of Exeter, Robert Atwell, which talks about neighbours rebuilding their lives in “friendship, trust and hope”.
Father David Way, vicar of St Thomas’ Church in Keyham, told the BBC: “Most importantly we will be praying for those who were killed.
“But something which has been taxing my mind all the way through is, I also have to pray for mercy for Jake on his soul.
“As Christians, we have to love our enemies and look with love on people who cause us harm.”
Police are not treating the incident, the worst mass shooting in Britain since 2010, as terror-related.
However, Davison had made references to “incels” – members of misogynistic online groups of “involuntary celibate” men, who blame women for their sexual failings and who have been linked to a number of violent acts around the world – in some online social media videos.
Former commissioner Lord Stevens told the Sunday Telegraph that Davison was “clearly a dangerous man”.
He said: “The videos he made should have been taken into account when he applied for a shotgun licence.
“There needs to be a trawling of online content for an in-depth assessment of who these people are and what they think.”
