Sutton and Bluntisham villagers in shock as shootings leave two …
People living in two Cambridgeshire villages are in shock after two men were shot dead late on Wednesday night (March 29). Cambridgeshire Police was called to reports of gunshots at an address in Meridian Close, Bluntisham shortly after 9pm.
Officers arrived to find the body of a 32-year-old man inside with a gunshot wound. Then, at around 9.37pm, Cambridgeshire Police[1] also received a call from a person in Sutton, around six miles away near Ely, again reporting hearing gunshots.
The body of a 57-year-old man was found at a property in The Row with gunshot wounds. Police are treating both deaths as murder and an investigation is underway.
“I thought it was an altercation. Then I saw the armed police”
Gordon Murray, who lives near two semi-detached houses that have been sealed off by murder detectives in Sutton, said he saw police cars “racing down” and armed police shouting on Wednesday evening.
The 62-year-old support engineer said officers later asked him if he had CCTV footage, and when he looked back he saw a white car that made two passes, and on the second pass the car stopped and someone opened the boot.
He said: “I saw the police cars racing down here. There was a lot of shouting. I thought it was an altercation or something. Then I saw the armed police. They were shouting something to the homeowners. That was it. I stood in the window watching.”
Mr Murray said there were two cars with “three or four” officers in each, “all armed and with their headgear”, adding: “Earlier on there was another policeman with a torch. My son said he heard some bangs but I don’t know if that was the car doors slamming. There was a white hatchback which came around and stopped outside, then about half an hour later he came back and lifted up the boot.”
He said the car “came around twice”, and when someone opened the boot he “couldn’t see him get anything out, it was very fuzzy”. He does not know if the homes sealed off by police are rental properties but believes “a guy on his own” stays there.
“I didn’t know it was gunshots at the time”
Flowers left at the scene in The Row in Sutton, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, where police found the body of a 57-year-old man who had died from gunshot wounds.
Sarah Lown, who also lives near to the houses sealed off by murder detectives in Sutton, said she heard three loud bangs on Wednesday evening.
The 38-year-old designer said: “I didn’t know it was gunshots at the time. It was about 9.15pm; I thought it was something blowing over as I heard a bang.
“There are pallets in our garden that I thought could have fallen over. I didn’t think anything crazy had happened. I heard two more – it was bang, space, bang. Whether or not they were each gunshots I don’t know; then police were outside the house.”
Ms Lown said there were no sirens, “just the flashing lights”. She said a man who lived at one of the properties sealed off by police “always had really fancy cars out the front, souped up, cool looking cars”.
“I don’t know if he worked with cars. I had never met him so I don’t know.”
“Especially that it is just on the corner of where I live”
A neighbour who works at a local shop said she saw “three or four police cars” going towards Earith on Wednesday night. Speaking outside her house just off The Row, in Sutton, she said: “Last night I took the dog out into the garden.
“We saw three or four police cars going towards Earith and thought nothing of it really because we had had a couple of people ragging around the village. But other than that I didn’t really hear anything.”
The woman, who did not want to give her name, said she was “shocked” when she saw the news on Facebook on Thursday morning.
“Especially that it is just on the corner of where I live,” she added.
She said she did not know the victim.
A 27-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman from Cambridge and a 66-year-old man was arrested in the Worcester area were all arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. The properties in Meridian Close and The Row have been cordoned off and police officers will remain at both scenes.
References
- ^ Cambridgeshire Police (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ Updates as two men shot dead in Cambridgeshire as police launch double murder investigation (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)