The Leeds crossbow attacker shared a chilling online ‘manifesto’ before his rampage and showed off an arsenal of weapons.
Owen Lawrence, 38, was named today by police, who revealed he had died from a ‘self-inflicted injury’ after the terrifying incident on Saturday afternoon in Headingley.
He is believed he specifically targeted students in fancy dress as part of his plans for a Christchurch inspired ‘massacre’ along the route of The Otley Run pub crawl.
Police were called after Lawrence – who lived in Headingley as was unemployed – shot two women aged 19 and 31 before turning his weapon on himself. One has been discharged from hospital while the other is stable.
Counter-terror police described Lawrence as the main suspect and said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
In images posted online, he appears appeared wearing a top with a Crusader cross on it – an influence on far-right killer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a gun and bomb attack in Norway.
He also had a t-shirt with the words ‘natural selection’ which is a theory used to support far-right concepts of supposed white supremacy and male dominance.
Another post referred to a 19-minute YouTube documentary by a user called Dire Trip who advertised films about ‘weird, creepy, strange, or spooky things’ and had also featured Nicholas Prosper who killed his mother, brother and sister in Luton in September last year, ahead of a planned attack on his former primary school.
The video that Lawrence commented on was about schoolboy Hugo Jackson and a 16-year-old he had met online playing a game called Roblox, both of whom had launched knife attacks at schools in Sweden in 2021 and 2022.
Both were influenced by Brenton Tarrant who killed 51 people in a gun attack on two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand in 2019, which he streamed on Facebook Live.
Tarrant also published a ‘manifesto’ in which he claimed there was a conspiracy to create a ‘white genocide’.
Lawrence listed ‘reactionary, with some ‘small l’ libertarian sympathies’ under his ‘political views’ in a Facebook post, before the attack. Reactionary politics is a far-right theory that seeks to roll back social advancements.
‘I have also explored far-right ideas, by reading through Brenton Tarrent’s [sic] 74 page manifesto titled The Great Replacement,’ he added.
Lawrence declared his intention to launch the ‘Otley Run Massacre’ and said his targets were ‘students, night club goers, pub crawler’s [sic], Otley Run participants, society, humanity, human race.’
He also mentioned ‘neurotypicals’ – which is a term of abuse used by extremists who are proud to be ‘neurodivergent’, especially if they have autism spectrum disorder which can make extremists socially isolated and particularly obsessive.
He added as a target, ‘police, if I need to.’
His ‘attack type’ was listed as ‘spree killing, mass murder, terrorism, revenge,’ and ‘misogynyic rage’ [sic], along with ‘homicide/suicide.’
Lawrence stated the location for his attack was to be ‘Otley Road, Leeds England, Headingley, [sic] LS6’ and he gave his name as ‘Owen ‘Oz’ Lawrence’ adding: ‘ethnicity/nationality: white British; religious views: agnostic.’
The weapons he listed were a crossbow and a break barrel air gun, along with a Sig Sauer Rattler CO2 Gun and a Powerline Daiay 415 steel ‘BB’ ball bearing gun, and a ‘blank firer’ with modified ammunition.
He was going to wear combat gloves and take with him an ‘unbreakable baseball bat’ called the Brooklyn Basher and two homemade ‘shanks’ [knives].
His ‘attack type’ was listed as ‘spree killing, mass murder, terrorism, revenge,’ and ‘misogynyic rage’ [sic], along with ‘homicide/suicide.’
Lawrence stated the location for his attack was to be ‘Otley Road, Leeds England, Headingley, [sic] LS6’ and he gave his name as ‘Owen ‘Oz’ Lawrence’ adding: ‘ethnicity/nationality: white British; religious views: agnostic.’
The weapons he listed were a crossbow and a break barrel air gun, along with a Sig Sauer Rattler CO2 Gun and a Powerline Daiay 415 steel ‘BB’ ball bearing gun, and a ‘blank firer’ with modified ammunition.
He was going to wear combat gloves and take with him an ‘unbreakable baseball bat’ called the Brooklyn Basher and two homemade ‘shanks’ [knives].
Residents in the block of flats where Lawrence lived were stunned about what had happened.
His next door neighbour, who had already learned of the death, told : ‘I am just sad about it. I am sad about the people who got injured and I am sad about him and for his family.
‘I cannot believe he put all this stuff on Facebook. He had the mind of a child. He did not even know how to turn the central heating on.
‘I never heard him speak of hating women. His mother was very domineering but in a kind way. He could not clean up or anything.
‘I never had any problems with him at all. We used to say good morning but did not mix with him socially.’
Facebook’s parent company Meta said on Sunday that it had removed an account apparently associated with Lawrence.
Two weapons were recovered from the scene – a crossbow and a firearm, police said.
Officers were on Sunday guarding a modern block of flats less than a five-minute walk away where the suspect is understood to live.
A neighbour who knows the man said: ‘The police have been there all night. Those poor girls are never going to be the same.’
Damage was visible to cafe windows as locals spoke of their horror at the carnage.
Residents and traders said that they believed many of the students did not realise what was happening because they were having such a good time.
Cries of ‘What’s happened?’ were heard as students piled into local cafes at the end of the Otley Run route when they came under fire on Saturday.
One of the cafes, The Gelateria, had its front door shattered, while police vehicles were parked outside, although it was unclear if the damage was connected to the incident.
Just minutes before it happened, the road was packed with students in fancy dress – some as the Pope – queuing to get into packed-out pubs.
Gregory Dritschel, 25, said yesterday: ‘I have done the Otley Run myself but not for a year or two.
‘But when I saw the police my first thought was it was something to do with the Otley Run. It is a crowded run and an obvious target.
‘There were quite a few people dressed as the Pope.’
Residents said the first thing they knew something was wrong was when they spotted revellers fleeing inside pubs along the route.
‘There were quite a lot of people we saw piling into there,’ one eye witness said.
Another horrified local said: ‘It could have been a lot worse. I am glad they caught a suspect. The Run has been going on for years and it is so big now. It is just shocking.’
Robert Crapsey, originally from Ohio, has lived in Leeds for 17 years.
‘My daughter and I were coming up Otley Road as they started blocking everything off,’ he said.
‘There was a lot of police stopping the traffic. Some of the pub runners stopped but the rest carried on.
‘I don’t think they knew anything had happened. I just thought someone had been hit by a car.’
Mr Crapsey said some of the revellers may have initially mistaken the attacker for a student in fancy dress.
‘You see swords and scythes. People may have seen him and just thought he had a really bad costume.’
Local resident April Place agreed, saying: ‘They all dress up with axes and things so no one would have taken any notice.’
Visiting the scene, local councillor Julie Hesselwood said: ‘We just want to say thank you to the police and ambulance service really quickly.’
Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: ‘Officers will continue to conduct enquiries and we ask that if anyone has information that may assist, to pass this to police.
‘We understand there are concerns around the incident, and questions about how and why this has happened. Our teams are committed to carrying out an in-depth investigation to provide answers to those affected.
‘We continue to work closely with West Yorkshire Police to support the local community and thank residents for their support and understanding over the weekend.
‘Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected by this incident.’