A man gunned down down alongside his father in a double shooting had ‘just won a bitter custody battle for his son,’ a devastated friend has claimed.
Josh Dunmore, 32, should have been ‘celebrating,’ said a pal, but his body was found at a house in an upmarket newbuild estate in Bluntisham, Cambridgeshire on March 29, after reports of gunshots.
Half an hour later his father Gary, 57, was found dead at his flat after more shots were heard in another sought-after street in Sutton, six miles away.
Popular Josh, a builder and member of St Ives Boxing Club. has been in an alleged custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son.
A friend of the dad’s wrote in a heartfelt tribute to him placed at the first cordoned off scene: ‘To Josh. I cannot believe I am writing this.
Josh Dunmore, 32, had just won a bitter custody battle for his son and should have been ‘celebrating,’ a devastated pal has claimed.
The body of 32-year-old Josh Dunmore was found inside the property with a gunshot wound
‘This week was meant tine a celebration for you and your precious boy.
‘I pray that you can rest in peace knowing you fought every day for Ryan. Everything you done was for him and he will forever know this.’
She added in memory: ‘I will remember to pick up my smile like you always told me when I had a resting bitch face in the gym.
‘SIBA will never be the same without you and your witty ways.
‘Keep on grooving up their rude boi. Love Harli.’
Devastated friends and family have laid flowers at the scene in Meridian Close, Bluntisham, where Josh Dunmore was found dead
He was the ‘life and spirit of the club’ according to a 23-year-old woman who laid flowers near his house yesterday.
‘You’d smile when you saw him – he was always cracking jokes,’ she said.
And a close friend told the Mail: ‘He was a very caring person.’
Cambridgeshire Police say there was a ‘domestic element’ to the killings on Wednesday evening and feared the pair were the victims of a ‘targeted attack’, with the custody battle an ‘active line of inquiry’.
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Yesterday a woman aged 33, a man of 27 and a man aged 66 were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.
Police at the scene where Gary Dunmore was found dead. At 9.37pm, police were called by a person in Sutton, near Ely, also reporting hearing gunshots
The younger pair were detained at a hotel near Cambridge in the early hours and the older man was held in a dramatic capture operation on the M5 near Droitwich, Worcestershire, over 100 miles away where officers used a stinger device to stop a white Peugeot. A shotgun was reportedly found.
Chief Superintendent Jon Hutchinson said: ‘At this stage we’re not looking for any further people in relation to the incident. Once we had identified that family relationship, it became quite apparent why this attack may have happened and this is clearly a targeted and isolated attack.’
He added: ‘A line of inquiry that we’re focusing on is that those people who are in custody are known to the deceased and have had recent contact with them.’
The two people arrested at the hotel were ‘from the local area but we’re trying to identify where they have been staying in recent days’, he said, adding that forensic work was going on to establish if the same weapon was used at both locations, along with an investigation into whether the firearm that was found had been legally owned.
Police were called to reports of gunshots at a property in Meridian Close, Bluntisham (pictured) where Josh Dunmore was found dead
Detective Inspector Mark Butler of the major crime unit added: ‘There is no wider risk to the general public.’
A trampoline stood in the back garden of Josh’s redbrick house yesterday and a white van was parked outside. Flowers were also left there.
Neighbours were shocked by the two violent deaths in leafy streets where family homes sell for more than £500,000.
Designer Sarah Lown, 38, who lives near the house split into two flats where twice-married builder Gary Dunmore lived, heard three loud bangs just after 9pm on Wednesday.
‘I thought something had blown over,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think anything crazy had happened. Then I heard two more.’
Gordon Murray, 62, who lives opposite, said: ‘There was a lot of shouting. Then I saw armed police.’
Residents in Bluntisham were ordered to stay indoors by officers as a helicopter circled overhead.
Retail worker Sharon Coulson, 58, said the village was ‘a nice place to live, nice country walks, friendly, everyone says hello’.
Det Insp Butler said: ‘There will be an increased police presence in the areas concerned today and officers and crime officers will be at the scenes.’
Post-mortem examinations will take place in the coming days.
