Police and emergency services at the scene in Ashlyn Close, Bushey, north London, on Wednesday.
James Manning/AP
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James Manning/AP
LONDON — British police said Wednesday they had found the man suspected of killing three women, the wife and daughter of a prominent BBC radio commentator, near London in a brutal crossbow attack.
In a statement, Hertfordshire Police said Kyle Clifford, 26, was found in the Enfield area of north London, near his home, and was receiving medical treatment for his injuries. Police did not say how the injuries occurred but stressed that no shots were fired.
The BBC confirmed that the women killed were family members of commentator John Hunt – his 61-year-old wife Carol Hunt and their two daughters Hannah, 28, and Louise, 25.
Footage from Sky News showed the suspect being carried on a stretcher from Lavender Hill Cemetery in Enfield, near his home and about 52km (17 miles) east of the murder. Armed police, forensic officers and paramedics had been stationed around the cemetery throughout the day.
The public is advised not to approach Clifford, who the BBC reports served briefly in the British Army in 2022.
Detective Inspector Justine Jenkins of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Serious Crime Unit said: “Following extensive enquiries, the suspect has been arrested and no one else is currently wanted in connection with the investigation.”
“This remains an incredibly difficult time for the victims’ families and we ask that their privacy be respected as they come to terms with what has happened,” she added.
Jenkins said the investigation was moving “at a rapid pace” and that the victims’ formal identification had yet to take place. She also said the “hasty” naming of the victims had “caused great outrage”.
Police searched a park in north London, near Clifford’s home, after being alerted on Tuesday to the murder at a house in Bushey, a residential area in north-west London. Police and ambulance crews tried to revive them, but they were pronounced dead at the scene.
John Hunt is the chief horse racing commentator on BBC 5 Live, the company’s flagship news and sport channel. His voice is known to millions through his world-famous coverage of the Grand National and The Derby.
Hunt’s colleague and BBC 5 Live main presenter Mark Chapman struggled to hold back tears as he expressed everyone’s shock and pain.
“We have a football match for you tonight… and we’ll start preparing for it shortly but it’s a really heartbreaking day,” he said at the start of Wednesday’s live coverage of England’s Euro 2016 semi-final against the Netherlands on 5 Live.
“John Hunt was a colleague and a friend to us, not just to the current 5 Live Sport team but to everyone who worked here with him over the last 20 years, and to everyone who enjoyed his fantastic commentary,” said Chapman. “So on behalf of everyone involved with 5 Live Sport, we send our love, thoughts and support to John and his family.”
The Daily Mail and other newspapers reported that Hunt found the bodies early on Tuesday evening, after returning home from a reporting trip to Lingfield Park racecourse, south London.
Police have not said whether Clifford is related to the women, but British media reported that he is the ex-boyfriend of one of the girls.
Police Chief Jon Simpson said the attack was not random and the suspect was known to the family.
Local councillor Laurence Brass, who lives nearby, described the area as “a typical green English suburb” as he recounted his experience the night before.
“At about eight o’clock last night I was watching football on TV and suddenly a helicopter landed on the grass outside my flat, which is at the top of this road, then my phone started ringing and I was told there was a major incident going on in Bushey and we should all stay away because it looked like someone was on the run,” he told the BBC.
Britain’s new Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has been “fully briefed” on the “truly shocking” incident.
People in the UK do not need a license to own a crossbow, but it is illegal to carry a crossbow in public without a good reason.
A Home Office spokesman said Cooper would “promptly consider” the findings of the recent review into whether further crossbow control measures should be introduced.
