A 66-year-old man has been charged with the double murder of a father and son who were shot dead at two separate addresses in England.
Stephen Alderton, 66, of no fixed address, has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of possession of a firearm, Cambridgeshire Constabulary said on Friday.
Alderton will appear at Huntingdon Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
He was arrested in the Worcester area in the early hours of Thursday, following the shootings of the father and son.
A 27-year-old man and 33-year-old woman, also arrested on Thursday, have since been released with no further action taken.
Josh Dumore, 32, was found dead in a property in Bluntisham village at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, while Gary Dunmore, 57, was found at a property in Sutton about 40 minutes later.
Both had suffered gunshot wounds, according to police.
Gary, a builder, and his 32-year-old son Josh were murdered in a “targeted, planned” attack, investigators said.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Hutchinson, of Cambridgeshire Police, said, “Working with local residents and family members we quite quickly established that the two victims were related and they were father and son.”
He said the primary line of investigation was that the incident was related to a family issue.
“It’s been widely reported in the media that this may relate to a custody battle,” he said. “I can confirm that is an active line of inquiry for us.”
Three Arrested
In the wake of the killings, three people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.The 27-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were arrested at a hotel just outside Cambridge and questioned, before being released without charge.
Alderton was arrested by armed officers on the motorway in the Worcester area in the early hours of Thursday.
Police said at the time that they were probing whether the firearm was legally owned.
Tributes have been flooding in for the father and son.
Loud Bangs
Neighbours described the alarming scenes as police raced to both properties on Wednesday evening.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 told PA Media that 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.
“I saw the police cars racing down here,” he said.
Sarah Lown, who also lives near the houses that have been sealed off by murder detectives, said she heard three loud bangs on Wednesday evening.
“I didn’t know it was gunshots at the time,” the 38-year-old designer said.
“It was about 9:15 p.m.; 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.”
‘No Risk to Public’
Detective Inspector Mark Butler, from the major crime unit, said police did not believe there was any risk to the general public following the shootings.“These events will be shocking to local people and there will be understandable concerns within local communities, however, we are treating the attacks as targeted and there is no wider risk to the general public,” he said.
He said officers have been in touch with family and friends of the victims and they are helping the investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting Operation Scan.
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