A man accused of wounding two women with a crossbow in the British city of Leeds on Saturday has died of a self-inflicted injury, the police said on Tuesday.
The suspect, Owen Lawrence, 38, died in the hospital where he was taken after his arrest at the scene of the attack, the counterterrorism police said in a statement.
The two women, ages 19 and 31, were seriously injured, the authorities said. One was released from the hospital a day after the attack, but the other remained hospitalized on Tuesday after undergoing surgery for life-threatening wounds, they said.
The police said they were still investigating the motivation for the rampage, during which witnesses saw the suspect walking along a three-mile stretch of pubs and bars, known locally as the “Otley Run,” armed with a crossbow and several air rifles.
The attack appeared to be the latest in a series of violent incidents in Britain in recent years by individuals appearing to harbor a complex mix of motivations. Some showed an interest in extremist content online, though they did not adhere to a single ideology.
Last summer, three young girls were brutally murdered in a stabbing attack by a violence-obsessed teenager in Southport. A prosecutor said in court that the suspect had no political or religious ideology and that his “only purpose was to kill.” The young man had viewed a large quantity of videos and material relating to mass murder, violence and genocide, the authorities say.
Experts in radicalization have warned of a rise in indiscriminate acts of violence of a sort once mostly associated with ideologically driven terrorists.
A social media account associated with the suspect in the Leeds attack on the weekend indicated an interest in mass shootings and in white supremacy, and voiced misogynistic views.
The authorities have not yet decided whether to formally declare the incident a terrorist attack. Under British law, that would require a finding that the violence have been waged “for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.”
Investigators are reviewing two Facebook accounts that the police believe belonged to the suspect. One of the accounts was viewed by The New York Times before it was taken down.
The most recent post, published shortly before the attack began at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday, was titled “attack information” and contained photos of weapons that matched images of items discarded on the ground following the assault. It said the targets would be “students, night club goers, pub crawlers, Otley Run participants, society, humanity, humanitarian race, neurotypicals and police, if I need to.”
Under the heading “attack type,” the post said it was a “spree killing, mass murder, terrorism, revenge, misogynistic rage, homicide/suicide.”
The Facebook user said he was a political “reactionary” who had “explored far right ideas” and had read a notorious manifesto shared by the white supremacist who carried out mass shootings at two New Zealand mosques in 2019. A separate post referred to “the great replacement,” a far-right conspiracy theory that white people are being replaced by nonwhites in Western countries.
Another recurring theme on the account was a hatred of women, feminists and the political left. A Feb. 15 post accused women of causing society to “degenerate” by choosing the wrong partners. A week later, another post claimed that dating apps like Tinder were “designed for women only.”
The Facebook account had been made public before the attack and the profile picture showed a man believed to be the suspect holding a baseball bat and wearing a T-shirt similar to one worn by one of the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
Mass shootings in America also drew attention on the account.
In 2024 the user shared a video relating to a 2017 gunman at a supermarket in Pennsylvania, with the caption: “R.I.P. brother, identified with you a lot.”
Other attacks discussed on the Facebook page included one targeting Jews and Muslims in Germany in 2019 and the 2011 Norway massacre by the white supremacist Anders Breivik.
Several posts alluded to the Crusades, using the Latin phrase “Deus vult” — “God wills it” — which was used by Christian armies and has since been adopted by far-right groups. In November 2023, the man posted a photo of himself performing what appears to be a Nazi salute.
But on Feb. 20 this year, the same account wrote that he did not identify with far-right ideologies and had only “flirted with their ideas a bit.”
Several other posts account made reference to health and well-being, saying he was a recovering drug addict who attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
