Crossbow-wielding triple murder suspect arrested in UK after massive manhunt

LONDON — A man suspected of using a crossbow to kill three women from the same family in a north London home was arrested by police Wednesday at a local cemetery.

Kyle Clifford was taken into custody in the town of Enfield after a massive manhunt and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, police said.

“He is receiving medical treatment as he was found injured,” police said in a statement. “No shots were fired by police.”

Police have not released a possible motive for the triple murder. They said in a statement: “At this point, we believe the suspect was known to the victims.”

Police have warned the public not to approach the 26-year-old triple murder suspect as he may still be armed with a crossbow, a bolt-firing weapon.

Investigators believe the victims were specifically targeted in the “horrific incident,” Hertfordshire Police Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson said at a news conference before Clifford’s arrest.

The victims, aged 25, 28 and 61, are believed to be related, he said.

The BBC identified the victims as Carol Hunt, the wife of BBC horse racing commentator John Hunt, and two of their daughters.

“Significant police resources” – including armed officers, a relative rarity in largely unarmed Britain – have been deployed to the local county of Hertfordshire and adjacent north London, he added.

Police had previously said other weapons may have been used in the killings, which occurred at 7pm local time (2pm EST) on Tuesday in the small town of Bushey, northwest of London.

Such incidents are rare and shocking in Britain, where the homicide rate is six times lower than in the United States, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

This is largely due to Britain’s much stricter gun laws, although knife crime and stabbings have increased in recent years and become a hot topic in British politics.

Crossbow murders are extremely rare, with fewer than 10 in the UK between 2011 and 2021, the government said.

There is no law governing the purchase or possession of such a weapon, provided that you are 18 or older. But anyone caught carrying one in public without a valid excuse could face up to four years in prison.

In February, the government said it was considering tightening those restrictions, citing an incident on Christmas Day 2021, when Jaswant Singh Chail, 19, arrived at Windsor Castle with a crossbow and told authorities he planned to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

Britain’s new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called this week’s incident “truly shocking” and said she was being kept informed of the situation.

Officers were called to a suburban street lined with single-family homes and found three women with serious injuries, police said in a statement. Despite efforts by paramedics to save the women, all three died at the scene.

“This is an incredibly difficult incident for the victims’ families and we ask that their privacy is respected while they come to terms with what has happened,” Detective Superintendent Rob Hall, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said in an earlier statement.

Alexander Smith reported from London and Corky Siemaszko from New York.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com