Cambridgeshire shooting – news: Victims were father and son as police probe ‘custody battle’
Bodies of a 32-year-old and a 57-year-old found at separate homes
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Two men shot dead in villages in Cambridgeshire were father and son, police have revealed.
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder following the shooting of the victims in Cambridgeshire.
Police were called to a property in Meridian Close, Bluntisham, at just after 9pm on Wednesday with reports of gunshots.
Officers arrived to find the body of a 32-year-old man with a gunshot wound and are now treating his death as murder. Then at 9.37pm, police received a call from a person in Sutton, near Ely, again reporting hearing shots.
The body of a 57-year-old man was found at a property in The Row with bullet wounds. His death is also being treated as murder.
A neighbour said Gary Dunmore was “so friendly, happy, smiley - just the perfect neighbour”.
A 27-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were arrested in the early hours of today in Cambridge, while a 66-year-old man was arrested in the Worcester area.
All three were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
Body brought out from Sutton house
Forensic officers have brought a body out of a house in The Row, Sutton, Cambridgeshire, into a private ambulance.
Police officers held up a black tarpaulin to shield the view.
Police ‘attempting to establish if firearm was legally owned'
Detective chief superintendent Jon Hutchinson, of Cambridgeshire Police, said that an “active line of inquiry” is “understanding whether that firearm was legally owned”.
He said that “at this stage we’re not looking for any further people in relation” to the incident.
The detective said that “a line of inquiry that we’re focusing on is that those people who are in custody are known to the deceased and have had recent contact with them”.
He said forensic work was going on to establish if the same weapon was used at both locations.
The two people arrested at a hotel just outside Cambridge were “from the local area but we’re trying to identify where they have been staying in recent days”, he said.
He added that the “initial arrests have been made for conspiracy to murder - that is likely to change as information develops in the hours ahead”.
Latest update from the scene in Sutton
A private ambulance has parked in front of the victim’s house in The Row, Sutton, Cambridgeshire.
It follows police officers extending the cordoned-off area.
One officer laid flowers on the drive outside the house.
Flowers left for ‘Josh’, 32
Floral tributes have begun to pile up near a police cordon at Meridian Close in Bluntisham, where a 32-year-old man was found dead inside a home.
His 57-year-old father was found dead inside a property around six miles away in The Row, Sutton.
One of the tributes left in Bluntisham said: “Josh, you shined such a bright light over everyone around you. It was impossible not to smile when you’re around. You’re going to be missed so much.”
Another read: “Rest easy, Josh”, adding: “Your son was a very lucky boy to have a dad like you.
“Your bubbly personality will be dearly missed.”
Body carried from Sutton house
Forensic officers have carried a body out of a house in The Row, Sutton, into a private ambulance.
Police officers held up a black tarpaulin to shield the view.
Floral tributes in photos
Friend pays tribute to ‘perfect neighbour’ Gary Dunmore
A friend and neighbour of the 57-year-old victim in Sutton, near Ely, gave his name as Gary Dunmore.
Stuart, who declined to give his last name, said he knew Gary “really well”.
He said he sent a WhatsApp message to Gary after hearing “gunshots suspiciously close” on Wednesday night.
“(The message) isn’t going to be responded to, I think,” he said.
Paying tribute to the dead man, Stuart said: “He was a legend. He was so friendly, happy, smiley - just the perfect neighbour.
“If he heard you pant in the garden... he would pop his head over the fence and go, ‘You got the right tools mate?’.
“He couldn’t do any more for any person. There was not a malicious bone in his body.
“What tribute could you pay to somebody who could never meet you without the biggest smile?
“There is no way that he would have deserved this at all.”
Police have yet to identify the victim.
Son ‘a passionate guy’, says neighbour
A neighbour of the older man, Gary Dunmore, said he also knew his son, Josh.
“He was just such a passionate guy,” he said.
Asked what the pair did for work, Stuart said Gary was a builder and that Josh also worked in “the general trade”.
Three under arrest linked to wider family issue, say police
The three people in custody are thought to be linked to a wider continuing family issue and are are known to each other, police say.
Ch Supt Jon Hutchinson said the two addresses had not been visited by police previously and there was no indication that the crime could have been anticipated by detectives.
Mr Hutchinson said: “This type of crime is extremely rare, and especially this extreme level of violence.
“It is rare in Cambridge to have firearm discharges and to have two in close succession is almost unprecedented in this area.”
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