Defiant Otley Runners take on famous 19-pub beer crawl a week after fanatic tried to massacre youngsters there with his crossbow

Daily Mail​

03-05-2025

Defiant Otley Runners have taken on the town's famous 19-pub beer crawl just one week after a far-right extremist tried to massacre youngsters there with his crossbow.
Despite the attack revellers were in good spirits as they took to the streets of Leeds donning fancy dress and sparkly costumes for the two-and-a-half mile boozefest.
It comes after Owen Lawrence, 39, shot two women with a crossbow along the route of The Otley Run pub crawl before turning the weapon on himself last Saturday.
Fortunately, the two women survived, with one remaining in hospital in a stable condition while the other was discharged, but Lawrence succumbed to his injuries two days later.
Images showed drinkers dressed up as traffic cones, Smurfs and even Doctor Who characters as they attended the drinkathon today.
One pack of friends dressed up as Dalmatians, with the girls sporting black and white spotted skirts, while another group featured both a builder and a Paddington Bear.
Meanwhile, two male friends smiled at the camera while wielding baseball bats dressed up as the comic book character Harley Quinn.
Batman, Spiderman, and the entire Star Wars crew were spotted too, and Dobby the Elf from Harry Potter, also made an appearance.
Despite the attack revellers were in good spirits as they took to the streets of Leeds donning fancy dress and sparkly costumes for the two-and-a-half mile boozefest
It comes after Owen Lawrence (pictured), 39, shot two women with a crossbow along the route of The Otley Run pub crawl before turning the weapon on himself last Saturday
The Otley Run is meant to be a lighthearted tradition but last weekend it took a dark and disturbing turn when Owen Lawrence attempted to go on a killing spree.
It is believed he specifically targeted students in fancy dress as part of his plans for a Christchurch inspired 'massacre' along the route of the pub crawl.
Students living in the area have spoken out about how the attack has affected them, with some fearing for their safety and others feeling the need to be 'even more aware' of their surroundings.
Art student Jess Anderson, 20, told the BBC the incident had 'brought it close to home that there is actually a rise in violence against women'.
She said she enjoyed dressing up for the pub crawl and being with the people she loved, but was 'concerned there might be copycat people'.
Her views were shared by student Christi King, 21, who lives in Headingley and said the attack had made her 'even more aware' of her surroundings.
Police were called after Lawrence - who lived in Headingley and was unemployed - shot two women aged 19 and 31 before turning his weapon on himself. One has been discharged from hospital while the other is stable.
Counter-terror police described Lawrence as the main suspect and said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
In images posted online, he appears appeared wearing a top with a Crusader cross on it - an influence on far-right killer Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in a gun and bomb attack in Norway.
He also had a t-shirt with the words 'natural selection' which is a theory used to support far-right concepts of supposed white supremacy and male dominance.
Another post referred to a 19-minute YouTube documentary by a user called Dire Trip who advertised films about 'weird, creepy, strange, or spooky things' and had also featured Nicholas Prosper who killed his mother, brother and sister in Luton in September last year, ahead of a planned attack on his former primary school.
The video that Lawrence commented on was about schoolboy Hugo Jackson and a 16-year-old he had met online playing a game called Roblox, both of whom had launched knife attacks at schools in Sweden in 2021 and 2022.
Both were influenced by Brenton Tarrant who killed 51 people in a gun attack on two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand in 2019, which he streamed on Facebook Live.
Tarrant also published a 'manifesto' in which he claimed there was a conspiracy to create a 'white genocide'.
Lawrence listed 'reactionary, with some 'small l' libertarian sympathies' under his 'political views' in a Facebook post, before the attack. Reactionary politics is a far-right theory that seeks to roll back social advancements.
'I have also explored far-right ideas, by reading through Brenton Tarrent's [sic] 74 page manifesto titled The Great Replacement,' he added.
Lawrence declared his intention to launch the 'Otley Run Massacre' and said his targets were 'students, night club goers, pub crawler's [sic], Otley Run participants, society, humanity, human race.'
He also mentioned 'neurotypicals' - which is a term of abuse used by extremists who are proud to be 'neurodivergent', especially if they have autism spectrum disorder which can make extremists socially isolated and particularly obsessive.
He added as a target, 'police, if I need to.'
His 'attack type' was listed as 'spree killing, mass murder, terrorism, revenge,' and 'misogynyic rage' [sic], along with 'homicide/suicide.'
Lawrence stated the location for his attack was to be 'Otley Road, Leeds England, Headingley, [sic] LS6' and he gave his name as 'Owen 'Oz' Lawrence' adding: 'ethnicity/nationality: white British; religious views: agnostic.'
The weapons he listed were a crossbow and a break barrel air gun, along with a Sig Sauer Rattler CO2 Gun and a Powerline Daiay 415 steel 'BB' ball bearing gun, and a 'blank firer' with modified ammunition.
He was going to wear combat gloves and take with him an 'unbreakable baseball bat' called the Brooklyn Basher and two homemade 'shanks' [knives].