Cumbria shootings
2010 shooting spree in Cumbria, England
On 2 June 2010, 52-year-old taxi driver Derrick Bird carried out a spree shooting across multiple parts of Cumbria, England, killed twelve people and injured eleven others. 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.
The shootings began in mid-morning in Lamplugh and moved to Frizington, Whitehaven, Egremont, Gosforth, and Seascale, sparking a major manhunt by the Cumbria Constabulary, with assistance from Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers. Thirty crime scenes across Copeland were investigated.
Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to the victims, and the Prince of Wales later visited Whitehaven in the wake of the tragedy. Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May also visited West Cumbria. A memorial fund was set up to aid victims and affected communities.
Timeline
Targeted shootings
In the early hours of Wednesday, 2 June 2010, Derrick Bird left his home in Rowrah, Cumbria, drove his 2006 Citroën Xsara Picasso taxi to his twin brother David's home in Lamplugh, and shot him eleven times in the head and body with a .22 calibre rifle, killing him. Four of those bullets exited David's body, causing a total of 15 entry or exit wounds.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cumbria shootings” as 2010 shooting spree in Cumbria, England. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 2010 shooting spree in Cumbria, England. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q123069. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010, 1987, 1996 and 2006.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cumbria shootings”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cumbria shootings primary sources, Cumbria shootings archive and Cumbria research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cumbria shootings”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cumbria shootings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.