Two men killed in what police say was a “targeted” shooting were a father and his son, detectives have revealed.
The pair were shot dead within an hour of each other on Wednesday night in two quiet Cambridgeshire villages six miles apart.
The victims have been named locally as Gary Dunmore and his son Josh.
Three people were arrested after the killings in Bluntisham and in Sutton, near Ely.
Detective chief superintendent Jon Hutchinson, of Cambridgeshire Police, said: “Working with local residents and family members we quite quickly established that the two victims were related and they were father and son.”
He said that the primary line of investigation was that the incident related to a “familial issue”.
“It’s been widely reported in the media that this may relate to a custody battle,” he said.
“I can confirm that is an active line of inquiry for us.”
Officers called to reports of shots at a house in Meridian Close, Bluntisham, just after 9pm on Wednesday found the body of a 32-year-old man. They are treating his death as a murder.
Seven minutes later, police received a report of shots in nearby Sutton near Ely, and found the body of a 57-year-old man at a house in The Row. His death is also being treated as murder.
Three people have been arrested for questioning on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
Mr Hutchinson said officers made a “very quick two arrests” in a hotel just outside Cambridge.
“In the early hours of this morning we did a joint operation alongside West Mercia Police, at which stage a 66-year-old man was arrested on the motorway by armed officers,” he said.
“Following his arrest, his vehicle was searched and I can confirm we have recovered a firearm.”
He said the man had been in police custody in Worcester and was being transported to Cambridgeshire for interview.
Neighbours in Sutton described hearing gunshots and seeing armed police arrive shortly afterwards.
“We do not believe there is any ongoing risk to the public in Cambridgeshire. We have got full control,” Mr Hutchinson said.
Stuart, 42, who lives in The Row, in Sutton, near Ely, named the man who lived in the house where the 57-year-old was found dead as Gary Dunmore. The software worker, who did not want to give his last name, said he knew Gary “really well”.
Stuart said he sent a WhatsApp message to Gary after hearing “gunshots suspiciously close” on Wednesday night.
“(The message) isn’t going to be responded to, I think,” he said.
Paying tribute, Stuart said: “He was a legend. He was so friendly, happy, smiley – just the perfect neighbour. If he heard you pant in the garden… he would pop his head over the fence and go, ‘You got the right tools mate?’.
“He couldn’t do any more for any person. There was not a malicious bone in his body.”
Sutton resident Stuart added of his neighbour: “What tribute could you pay to somebody who could never meet you without the biggest smile? There is no way that he would have deserved this at all.”
Stuart said he also knew Gary Dunmore’s son Josh. “He was just such a passionate guy,” he added.
Asked what the pair did for work, Stuart said Gary was a builder and that Josh also worked in “the general trade”.
