A person accused of wounding two ladies with a crossbow within the British metropolis of Leeds on Saturday has died of a self-inflicted harm, the police stated on Tuesday.
The suspect, Owen Lawrence, 38, died within the hospital the place he was taken after his arrest on the scene of the assault, the counterterrorism police stated in a statement.
The 2 ladies, ages 19 and 31, have been significantly injured, the authorities stated. One was launched from the hospital a day after the assault, however the different remained hospitalized on Tuesday after present process surgical procedure for life-threatening wounds, they stated.
The police stated they have been nonetheless investigating the motivation for the rampage, throughout which witnesses noticed the suspect strolling alongside a three-mile stretch of pubs and bars, recognized regionally because the “Otley Run,” armed with a crossbow and a number of other air rifles.
The assault gave the impression to be the newest in a sequence of violent incidents in Britain lately by people showing to harbor a posh mixture of motivations. Some confirmed an curiosity in extremist content material on-line, although they didn’t adhere to a single ideology.
Final summer time, three younger women have been brutally murdered in a stabbing assault by a violence-obsessed teenager in Southport. A prosecutor stated in court docket that the suspect had no political or non secular ideology and that his “solely objective was to kill.” The younger man had seen a big amount of movies and materials referring to mass homicide, violence and genocide, the authorities say.
Consultants in radicalization have warned of an increase in indiscriminate acts of violence of a form as soon as principally related to ideologically pushed terrorists.
A social media account related to the suspect within the Leeds assault on the weekend indicated an curiosity in mass shootings and in white supremacy, and voiced misogynistic views.
The authorities haven’t but determined whether or not to formally declare the incident a terrorist assault. Below British regulation, that will require a discovering that the violence have been waged “for the aim of advancing a political, non secular, racial or ideological trigger.”
Investigators are reviewing two Fb accounts that the police consider belonged to the suspect. One of many accounts was seen by The New York Instances earlier than it was taken down.
The newest submit, printed shortly earlier than the assault started at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, was titled “assault info” and contained images of weapons that matched photographs of things discarded on the bottom following the assault. It stated the targets can be “college students, night time membership goers, pub crawlers, Otley Run members, society, humanity, humanitarian race, neurotypicals and police, if I must.”
Below the heading “assault kind,” the submit stated it was a “spree killing, mass homicide, terrorism, revenge, misogynistic rage, murder/suicide.”
The Fb person stated he was a political “reactionary” who had “explored far proper concepts” and had learn a infamous manifesto shared by the white supremacist who carried out mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques in 2019. A separate submit referred to “the good alternative,” a far-right conspiracy concept that white persons are being changed by nonwhites in Western international locations.
One other recurring theme on the account was a hatred of girls, feminists and the political left. A Feb. 15 submit accused ladies of inflicting society to “degenerate” by selecting the incorrect companions. Per week later, one other submit claimed that courting apps like Tinder have been “designed for ladies solely.”
The Fb account had been made public earlier than the assault and the profile image confirmed a person believed to be the suspect holding a baseball bat and sporting a T-shirt just like one worn by one of many perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine Excessive Faculty bloodbath.
Mass shootings in America additionally drew consideration on the account.
In 2024 the person shared a video referring to a 2017 gunman at a grocery store in Pennsylvania, with the caption: “R.I.P. brother, recognized with you numerous.”
Different assaults mentioned on the Fb web page included one focusing on Jews and Muslims in Germany in 2019 and the 2011 Norway bloodbath by the white supremacist Anders Breivik.
A number of posts alluded to the Crusades, utilizing the Latin phrase “Deus vult” — “God wills it” — which was utilized by Christian armies and has since been adopted by far-right teams. In November 2023, the person posted a photograph of himself performing what seems to be a Nazi salute.
However on Feb. 20 this yr, the identical account wrote that he didn’t establish with far-right ideologies and had solely “flirted with their concepts a bit.”
A number of different posts account made reference to well being and well-being, saying he was a recovering drug addict who attended Narcotics Nameless conferences.
