Crossbow seller says 'should have reported' killer's delivery query

SOUTHPORT INQUIRY IS TOLD RUDAKUBANA APPROACHED TWO FIRMS ABOUT WEAPONS

- By PATRICK EDRICH

SOUTHPORT killer Axel Rudakubana was just 15 when he approached two crossbow sellers and asked if they would deliver in "discrete" [sic] packaging.

The Southport Inquiry heard yesterday how in early May 2022 Rudakubana approached both Tactical Archery UK and Merlin Archery Limited about what their policies were when it came to delivering crossbows.

Giving evidence to the inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall, a representative for Tactical Archery said "I think we should have reported that," while his counterpart at Merlin Archery accepted the teenage killer's requests should have been cause for concern.

Rudakubana, who is only being referred to in the inquiry proceedings as AR, murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine and injured 10 other people when he "specifically targeted" a Taylor Swift-themed dance party at the Hart Space in Southport on July 29 last year.

The ongoing inquiry has heard in the years before he carried out the attack Rudakubana, now 19, amassed an arsenal of weapons including knives, machetes, bow and arrows and castor beans with the intention of making deadly poison ricin.

On the morning of May 3, 2022, when he was still 15, Rudakubana contacted the two retailers and enquired about what their policy was when it came to purchasing a crossbow, signing off his messages as “A”.

He emailed Tactical Archery and asked: “I would prefer discrete [sic] packaging which doesn’t provide any information on what is inside the box.” A customer service representative responded: “We use grey packaging when sending out crossbows. This is so that no one is able to see what is inside.”