Man, 39, is charged over Isle of Skye gun rampage as tributes paid to victim

11 August 2022, 12:02 | Updated: 11 August 2022, 17:15

A man who died following a series of firearm incidents in the Scottish Highlands has been named by police as John MacKinnon.

The 47-year-old was killed and three others were injured in the shooting incidents on Skye and Wester Ross on Wednesday.

A 39-year-old man has been charged over the attacks and is due to appear at Inverness Sheriff Court on Friday.

Ian Blackford, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, said what happened has "shocked the place to the core".

The attacker targeted four victims from the popular holiday island to Ross-shire, with the incident only halted when police tasered and stopped the suspect in the village of Dornie.

Dozens of police cars and the force helicopter were deployed to the remote Scottish region, in the Tarskavaig area of Skye, shortly before 9am on Wednesday where they found a 32-year-old woman with serious injuries.

Police said the 32-year-old woman, who was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for treatment, remains in a serious condition.

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About half an hour later, gun shots were reported at another property in the Teangue area of the island, about eight miles away, where the 47-year-old man was pronounced dead when emergency services arrived.

Following reports of gunshots in Dornie on the mainland, a 63-year-old man was found with serious injuries and taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness for treatment. Police said he remains in a critical condition.

A 63-year-old woman was taken to hospital and has subsequently been discharged, police said.

Nicola Sturgeon has said the communities affected by the incidents on and around Skye will be feeling a sense of "devastation".

"My thoughts are with those most directly affected by what has been a horrific incident on Skye.

"I want to convey that strength of feeling to those individuals and families who will have been devastated by what has happened," she said.

"Obviously, the kind of incidents that happened yesterday would have been horrific and devastating in any part of the country.

"But the kind of communities we're talking about here are small, close-knit communities and that sense of devastation will be felt even more acutely."

While Scotland's Finance Secretary Kate Forbes described the news as "one of the worst days that I can recall in the history of Skye and Lochalsh".

Local resident Gordon Matheson, who lives in Teangue, said the day had been "profoundly difficult" for the community.

"Families have suffered tremendous loss today," he said.

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A local who was working at nearby Eilean Donan Castle at the time the horror unfolded told of his fear his children might be caught up in the violence.

He told MailOnline: "I heard something bad was happening while I was at work, so I phoned my daughter and told her to stay in the house. It was scary.

"You’d think of something like this happening out in America but you don’t expect it around here."

Chief Superintendent Conrad Trickett said: "A 39-year-old man has been arrested in connection with all of the incidents, which are being treated as linked, and there is no threat to the wider community.

"The thoughts of myself and colleagues across Police Scotland are very much with the family and friends of Mr MacKinnon and the three people who remain injured.

"These incidents took place in a close-knit rural area and have a significant impact not only on those directly affected but also friends and their neighbours living in these communities.

"Serious incidents witnessed yesterday are extremely rare and I would like to further reassure the local communities that they were dealt with and there is no further threat.

"The policing response was significant, as people would expect, and involve national resources from across Police Scotland, including Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow. Officers were drafted from all these locations to support division officers and police locally in Skye."

He added that given the size of the investigation and the fact detectives are dealing with a number of different sites, the considerable police presence will remain for the near future.

The investigation is being led by Police Scotland's major investigation team.

Hamish Fraser, chairman of Broadford and Strath Community Council, said: "I’m shocked that such an incident has taken place in our island and within our close communities here. 

"Our immediate thoughts are with those who have been immediately affected by this terrible tragedy and broader communities who have to live with that over the next few years."