LISTENING to yet another row between partner Maxine Davison and her troubled son Jake, Darren Wood could not have imagined it would be their last.
But seconds later, his call to Maxine was shattered by a gunshot – as the mum-of-three was blasted by Jake at the start of a 19-minute killing spree that left her and four others dead.
The 22-year-old virgin went on a rampage in a quiet suburb of Plymouth in August 2021 – targeting innocent victims including a three-year-old girl and her father – before turning his gun on himself.
Speaking out for the first time in a BBC3 documentary The Plymouth Shootings, Darren says: “I was literally on the phone at the time, speaking to Maxine and I could hear them arguing in the background.
“She was going, ‘ f***ing shut up Jake’. And then I heard a shotgun going off.”
Darren reveals he had urged Maxine to pay a sex worker to deal with Davison’s “sexual frustration” and claims she had stopped her son from going on a shooting spree a year before the murders, after he was granted a firearms licence at 18.
He adds: “When I found out about that gun being in the house I couldn’t even sleep. It was like a 12 gauge pump action shotgun.
“And I went, ‘Well why would you want a shotgun in the house for? It’s just stupidity.”
For anyone who had witnessed woman hater Davison’s chilling online video rants, the fact that his first victim was female was not altogether surprising.
In disturbing footage the crane operator is seen ranting: “Women are very picky. They do not want, need or find average men attractive.
“And most women, a lot of women, are very simple minded and they ain’t all that bright.”
Writing on internet forum Reddit, he described his mum Maxine as “dirty, insufferable and a vile creature”.
The 22-year-old virgin described himself as an “Incel” – an involuntary celibate – and signed up to a YouTube channel dedicated to the movement.
Festering amid internet discussion groups, Incels blame women and society for their lack of romantic success.
In 2014, the incel movement turned violent. British-born Elliot Rodger went on a murder spree which brought the ideology to mainstream attention.
Stabbing six people to death in Isla Vista, California, the college dropout left a YouTube video and a 137-page manifesto which blamed women for rejecting him.
Four months before his murder frenzy, Davison had filmed himself discussing “the propensity for Incels to go on killing sprees”.
Davison’s descent down the Incel wormhole is explored in the documentary, screened tonight and Darren claims the virgin was frustrated by his inability to get a girlfriend.
He told the programme: “I could see that he was at that age where he was probably sexually frustrated.
When I found out about that gun being in the house I couldn’t even sleep. It was like a 12 gauge pump action shotgun.
Darren Wood
“And I remember he had a conversation with his mum going, ‘You’ve got a man, you’re always in a relationship. How comes I can’t get a girlfriend for myself?’
“I even said to his mum, ‘Do you want me to take him down the street and get him like sh***ed, with a prostitute?
“And she’s gone, “No, you ain’t taking my son down the street and getting him intimidated by some woman that doesn’t even know him.’”
What exactly sparked Davison’s shooting spree on the evening of August 12 2021 in Plymouth will never be known.
Yet files recovered from his computer showed he had read up on Elliot Rodger.
It was a sunny Devon afternoon when crane operator Davison, 22, left his work at Plymouth’s dockyard to return to the home he shared with mum Maxine in quiet cul-de-sac Biddick Drive in the suburb of Keyham.
At 6.05pm Maxine, 51, called her sister to say she was arguing with her son. Three minutes later, a neighbour heard two gun blasts.
Maxine had been shot twice – once from two metres and once from just a metre away.
Leaving the house at 6.09pm, Davison encountered Lee Martyn, 43, and his three-year-old daughter Sophie – seen shortly before holding her dad’s hand while pushing a buggy.
The loner shot Lee three times and. Sophie once from one metre away.
Stephen Washington, 59, was shot while walking his dogs and Kate Shepherd, 66, was fatally wounded returning from the supermarket.
Then at 6.24pm Davison shot himself dead in front of cops.
Davidson’s father Mark – divorced from Maxine – told the BBC: “They’re the victims, the ones who have lost their family members because my son had a shotgun.
“He shouldn’t have been able to get a gun so easily.”
The youngest of three children, Jake Davison was a gun-obsessed schoolboy who at the age of 13 was headbutting and spitting on teachers.
Diagnosed with autism in 2011, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service noted he was “impulsive and violent” and dreamt of being a sniper when he grew up.
Despite this disturbing information being available to Devon and Cornwall police firearms licensing unit, 18-year-old Davison was deemed suitable to own a lethal weapon.
In 2016, mum Maxine had raised her son’s gun obsession with Careers South West service which attempted to refer him to the counterterrorism Prevent programme but they didn’t take up his case.
He applied to police for a shotgun certificate in July 2017, telling them he wanted to go clay pigeon shooting with his uncle.
Davison declared his autism and Asperger’s syndrome as part of the process.
When Police contacted his GP – who knew about his fixation with firearms – the medic declined to comment, as was common at the time.
The doctor said he wasn’t qualified to comment on the “assessment of behavioural and personality disorders”.
Davison’s firearm application form wrongly stated that his GP was supportive.
The police granted Davison a five-year shotgun licence in January 2018.
Then in September 2020 Davison launched a savage attack on two teenagers after a youth called him a “fat c***” as he walked past a skate park.
Davison was captured on CCTV knocking a blameless 16-year-old boy unconscious and then slapping their 15-year-old female friend. The boy who had insulted Davison had run off.
Former jailbird Darren witnessed the bust up between Maxine and Davison on the night of the skate park assault.
He explained: “It started off with an argument between the two of them. And the thing with Maxine was she would never back down from an argument.
“He took a late night walk. He was walking down through central park and they’ve got a skate park off to the left.”
After the assault he told his mum “I’ve just hurt someone in the park. Someone spoke to me like s*** so I ended up beating up on them’.”
Maxine urged him to call the police but, Darren says: “He ran up the stairs and you could hear the bullets being put in the gun. Maxine went straight up the stairs and went, ‘What the f*** are you doing?
“And he said, ‘I’m going to go out and I’m going to take my gun and I’m going to shoot somebody’.
“And she went, ‘No you’re not. You can f***ing put that back in your cupboard and calm down’. “
6.05pm: Maxine calls her sister and tells her she is rowing with Jake.
6.07pm: Darren is on a call to Maxine when he hears a shot.
6.09pm: Davison leaves the house with his gun and begins shooting passersby.
He shoots dead Maxine Davison, 51, Lee Martyn, 43, and his three-year-old daughter Sophie, dog walker Stephen Henderson, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66. He also injures a mother and son.
6.11pm: Devon and Cornwall Police receive multiple calls reporting gunshots in Biddick Drive.
6.17pm: Armed and unarmed officers arrive at the scene six minutes after the first call and discover the victims’ bodies.
6.23pm: An entry on the police call log says the body of a man, later identified as Davison, has been found in Henderson Place.
Cops investigating the assault didn’t initially realise Davison owned a firearm and he was placed on the Pathfinder scheme instead of facing prosecution.
A concerned Pathfinder staff member alerted police that Davison had a gun two months after the assault and the weapon and certificate were taken away.
But, after he completed the Pathfinder course, the weapon was returned to him as he was only deemed a medium risk. Five weeks later Davison became a mass murderer.
He said, ‘I’m going to go out and I’m going to take my gun and I’m going to shoot somebody’
Darren Wood
Following an inquest, the families of the victims said in a statement: “Warning signs were ignored and a licence to kill was granted.”
Just 21 minutes before his murder spree, Davison had read a Reddit thread entitled: “Why do some Incels feel the need to unfortunately end their own lives?”
Adrift in a fantasy world, Davison likened himself to the Terminator from Hollywood movies
“I like to think I am the Terminator and, despite reaching total system failure, he keeps trying to complete his mission,” he said.
Chief Superintendent Roy Linden, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said Davison should never have been granted the certificate.
He told a 2023 inquest: “Our view is that in 2017, Jake Davison should not have been given a certificate and in 2020, following the skatepark incident, certainly should not have been given one.”
“Jake Davison should not have had a licence. Jake Davison should not have had a licence again in 2020. For that, we very much apologise. It should not have happened.”
The Plymouth Shootings is on BBC3 on June 27 at 9pm on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer
