"I thought: 'How the hell can I go and see her if they're all blaming me? Crossing the street, shooting as he went, Ryan strode towards 60 Priory Road, the home of Victor and Myrtle Gibbs and blasted open the front door with his semi-automatic rifle. Moving up Fairview Road, Ryan found neighbour, Abdul Khan, 84, a retired restaurateur, mowing the lawn in his back garden. By the time Dean looked back at him, he had assumed a shooting position, with the rifle aimed directly at her. She ducked below her counter just as a bullet pierced the safety glass above it and ricocheted through the small shop behind her. Whilst people did recognise that she was a victim, Canon John Reynolds, who conducted the service, selected not to mention her son and only made a brief reference to the Hungerford massacre. "There were no big wounds at the back of Lisa's legs. I thought he'd come in and kill them.". ", Kathleen Wainwright later moved to Hungerford to be near her son. Ryan was holding one of his most prized possessions - a Chinese copy of a Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifle. John O'Gaunt School in Hungerford, Berkshire, where Michael Robert Ryan committed suicide following the Hungerford Massacre, 8th September 1987. The young policeman wondered whether he should see if he could do anything to help. News crews at John O'Gaunt School in Hungerford, Berkshire, where Michael Robert Ryan committed suicide following the Hungerford Massacre. He told people he had served in the Second Parachute Regiment of the British armed forces, that he was getting married, and that he owned a gun shop. Lisa Mildenhall had been in the garden with her sister and two children from another house. When Michael Ryan went on a killing spree in Hungerford in 1987, the news - like last week's shootings in Cumbria - shocked the country. The Hungerford Massacre on August 19, 1987, saw 16 people killed in a rampage by gunman Michael Ryan. Later, police told her they believed her life had been saved by the fact she'd kept her curtains drawn as she pottered about, doing her housework in her nightgown. Preparing to leave for her grandmothers 95th birthday, Godfrey was packing away the picnic when a grim looking Ryan approached, dressed all in black and pointing a 9mm Beretta pistol at her. If there is a shooting elsewhere in the world, he braces himself for his phone to ring. At age 11, he moved from the local primary school opposite his home, to the John OGaunt Secondary School, where he underachieved academically and would often play truant. Scenes in Hungerford, Berkshire, following a gun siege in the town the day before, the event became known as the Hungerford massacre, pictured is the. She was wounded but managed to call her husband, Ivor Jackson, who worked close by. However, they stipulated that Ryan install a suitable Chubb steel cabinet in which to safely lock his weapons. Brereton was hit by four of the bullets and died in his car. "I just thought she was delirious from blood loss.". He then carries on killing with his legally purchased and licensed Kalashnikov capable of killing at 300 yards. In a small village 60 miles west of London, at 12:30 in the afternoon, 27-year-old Michael Ryan shoots a mother dead. Dorothy Ryan, Michaels mother, was a lunchtime supervisor at the primary school where Mrs Jackson worked. Ryan was 25 when his father died of cancer in 1985. They flew the police helicopter past the window, but could not see in to the classroom. "The tourist buses would just park where they usually did and then people used to come up here on foot," Trevor Jackson says. Armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol and at least one. In contrast, Dorothy Ryans funeral service, held at St Marys Church in Calne, Wiltshire, was only attended by 40 mourners. Ryans school friend remembers his mother would buy the boy whatever he wanted, but his father "couldnt be played" and "wore the trousers" in the house. But how did the town heal its wounds? I happened to mention that a chap that worked with my wife was injured during the shootings, to which he suggested that it was a good job that the SAS finished him off when they did. He was John Storms, 49, a washing machine engineer who had been called out to Hungerford Park Farm on business. Adding to the sound of gunfire in the area was the fact that the Thames Valley firearms squad were in training, about 40 miles away. Classmates remember he was quiet, seemed shy, "kept himself to himself" and was keen on the military. Thirty years later, the events of that day are rarely discussed by those affected. She knew her husband was dead. Marjorie Jackson recuperating in hospital in 1987, "I just thought to myself, I'm a mother. Ryan spotted another shocked neighbour, Marjorie Jackson, peering through the window at the dead bodies and shot her as well. AETNUK All Rights Reserved. He wounded a further 15 before turning the gun on himself. "I went to help and she said Michael Ryan had shot her. Many were attended by people who had never known the deceased in life, but wished to show support for their families and the bereaved Hungerford community in general. One of the boys she was with went to fetch his mother, Sylvia Pascoe, a qualified first-aider who lived at No 14. Besotted with the military, Ryan bought army jackets, survival gear and masks. He cannot even pass the end of the road. Similarly the Whitings, for years, simply drew their curtains and refused to answer the door. He then asked the time and was silent for a while. On 19 August 1987, the 27-year-old loner was in licensed possession of two shotguns, three pistols and two semi-automatic rifles. Ryan stormed into the shop and again aimed his rifle at Dean. Prof Jackson says violence towards his mother would fit in with Ryan's psychological profile as a narcissist who could not cope with being disobeyed, disagreed with or challenged. An investigation after the shootings found both Dorothy and Michael Ryan had been overdrawn on their bank accounts - in Dorothy's case largely because she bought her only child a new car every two years. Later that day, his parents were driving up from their home in Kent to visit him. Press intrusion is something the Jacksons continue to feel very strongly about. Witnesses report that at this point, Ryan seemed disgusted with the rifle and threw it onto the ground. I couldn't walk. The Hungerford Massacre was a spree shooting that took place in Hungerford, England, United Kingdom, on August 19, 1987. Mrs Jackson had known Ryan all of his life. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the village on Thursday, August 20, 1987, the day after the shooting, to pay her condolences. Dean reported later that when she looked Ryan in the face, it seemed as if he was not even aware of her and was looking right through her. The mother-of-four, 38, from Kent . Trevor can't move out to his own place. He took no heed of her pleas and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Why are you doing this?. Popular cab driver, Marcus Bernard, 30, was en route to visit his wife and newborn son in the local hospital. If this was his plan, it fell to pieces when his car would not restart. From the eerie quiet of Hungerford High Street after the murder of 16 people to the trail of blood leading up to the bedroom of an anonymous terraced house, Shepherd conjures up the uncanny. After the murders, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed following a report commissioned by then-Home Secretary Douglas Hurd. He subscribed to magazines on survival skills and guns, including Soldiers of Fortune, and was a fan of violent films such as Rambo: First Blood (1982). It seemed that whilst he was in the midst of a murderous rampage, he still felt the need to protect children. He was making his way to a part-time gardening job in the nearby village of Inkpen. Ryan broke into the Gibbs' house on Priory Road. People were frantic to get to their families to see if they were safe and unharmed. Access was blocked for the fire engine called to deal with the fire Ryan had started in his own home and which had already spread to three neighbouring properties. He chased me all the way. Then she phoned the building firm where her husband Ivor was a bricklayer, and asked for a message to be passed on. The open-air service outside the town hall was attended by over 60 percent of the population of Hungerford and the principal sermon preached by Right Honourable Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury.Apart from the numerous local and international newspaper articles written about the Hungerford Massacre and Michael Ryan, there were also several books. The John O'Gaunt School where shooter Michael Robert Ryan killed himself. Ryan looked in through the kitchen window and pointed his gun at her. Helicopters were hovering over Hungerford. "She tried to tell Michael to stop and he shot her at close range," Mr Jackson adds. He also had a more sinister motivation for visiting the woodland. A Thames Valley Police report to the Home Office found that - given the limitations imposed by the remote location and the difficulties in radio and telephone communication - the force's response "went well". Having created a fort for himself in the Gibbs home, Ryan fired at neighbouring houses, injuring a man at number 62 and a woman at number 67 Priory Road.Ian Playle, a 34-year-old clerk to the Justices at Newbury Magistrates Court, had brought his wife, Elizabeth, and their two young children, Richard and Sarah, to Hungerford on a shopping trip. The Hungerford massacre was a spree shooting in Hungerford, England, United Kingdom, on 19 August 1987, when 27-year-old Michael Ryan shot dead sixteen people, including an unarmed police officer and his own mother, before shooting himself. It seemed that the guns gave Ryan the feeling of power and control that he had always lacked. When that didn't bring him the respect he was looking for, he grabbed his guns and set out to kill as many people as he could. "I don't think he fully intended to commit a killing spree that day. ", Several of Derek and Mary Whiting's relatives were shot. Armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol and at least one. Then he shot at Mrs Dean and sped back to South View where he set fire to his home and shot dead his dog, Blackie. The couple have been married for 60 years and celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in January. Ambulance-woman Hazel Haslett was injured in the arm and the leg by broken glass. Alfred Ryan, Michael's father, had become a parent in his mid-50s and was about 20 years older than Dorothy. His father, Alfred Henry Ryan, a government building inspector, was known for being a perfectionist and was 55 when Ryan was born.His mother, Dorothy Ryan, was over 20 years younger than her husband and was 34 when she had her only son. Prof Jackson says it was at this point Ryan changed his plans. It banned the ownership of semi-automatic firearms and pump-action weapons and made registration mandatory for shotgun owners. A few doors down, a 14-year-old girl was staring at her legs. Although situated 15 miles from Hungerford, it was the nearest hospital with an Accident and Emergency department equipped to deal with the numerous casualties with high-velocity gunshot wounds. This had been Ryans first victim. The final shooting took place at about 13:45. Dorothy then saw her son with a gun in his hand and called to him, saying, Stop Michael. It's difficult. He legally owned several semi-automatic weapons and told people he had been in the SAS - just one strand of a fantasy life woven by him and apparently perpetuated by his mother. Lance Corporal Carl Harries, 21, a young off-duty soldier and veteran of the Falklands War, was on his way into town, to pick up a radiator hose, when he walked into the midst of the massacre. The local Hungerford police station was in the process of being renovated and had only two telephone lines working on that day. He adds that an overindulgent mother could also have led to Ryan never taking responsibility for his actions - a personality trait common to many spree killers. //-->