A man in Chatham, England has been arrested by police after shooting a gun randomly from his balcony as he live-streamed the incident on social media.
Kent police took one man into custody on suspicion of firearms offences after reports from neighbours of an ongoing shooting. In footage circulated on social media, a man is seen showing off his collection of what appear to be blank firing and imitation firearms. Further footage showed the male standing on the balcony of his penthouse apartment and firing a pistol.
While shooting into the air, the man was live-streaming on his personal Instagram page — which has since been deleted — and can be heard shouting “call the police!”
The man also referenced the rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG as he showed off his cache of weapons and ammunition.
A local witness told BBC Radio Kent that the man “was carrying on for a good half-an-hour.”
“I heard a lot of shouting and what seemed like a gunshot. I looked to my left and there was a guy up on the balcony with a rifle and a pistol,” she said.
“We were all in the front of the shop and you could see the pistol and a rifle and you could see the sparks coming off of it. He was just randomly shooting,” she added.
Kent Police officers eventually arrested the man, who is believed to be in his 30s, on suspicion of firearm offences. The police found four suspected imitation firearms at the scene.
In the videos posted by the gunman, the pistols and rifles laid out on his bed predominantly had different-coloured components, indicating that they were imitation firearms. In the UK, airsoft-type ball-bearing guns are generally mandated by law to be two-tone, with black and blue being a popular combination, as was the case for the gunman’s possibly imitation guns.
Despite the country having some of the strictest gun laws in the world, the UK has seen an increase of 27 per cent in gun crime over the past five years.
Gun seizures have also quadrupled over the same time period, with police officials attributing the rise in gun numbers to smugglers from Europe importing the weapons.
Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka
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