Victim killed in Manchester synagogue attack was shot by police

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Greater Manchester Police said that its officers shot one of the two victims who died in the attack on a synagogue in the city as well as one of the injured survivors.

Police were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on Thursday after reports that a man had driven a car at people at the gates and stabbed one person. Firearms officers shot dead the attacker, later identified as Jihad Al-Shamie.

But on Friday the police said that one of the two victims, initially believed to have been killed by Al-Shamie, “would appear to have suffered a wound consistent with a gunshot injury”.

Chief constable Sir Stephen Watson said on Friday that Al-Shamie was not believed to be carrying a gun and the only shots fired were by his officers.

“It follows therefore, that subject to further forensic examination, this injury may sadly have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence of the urgently required action taken by my officers to bring this vicious attack to an end,” he said.

He added one of three people hospitalised after the attack had also been wounded by gunfire, but was not suffering from life-threatening injuries.

Watson said that the two victims hit by gunfire were believed to have been “close together behind the synagogue door”, as police opened fire at Al-Shami outside.

On Friday, the Community Security Trust, a Jewish security organisation, said that one of its personnel was among those seriously injured in the attack.

Authorities are racing to gather information on Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Friday that Al-Shamie was not previously known to counterterrorism police. She said he had come to the UK as a child and was given British citizenship in 2006.

In 2012, the then Conservative MP John Howell received threatening emails from “Jihad Alshamie”, according to a contemporary report by the Jerusalem Post. But it is not clear if the sender was the Al-Shamie who perpetrated the Manchester attack.

On Friday morning, police named the two members of the public killed in the attack as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66.

Police were called to the synagogue at 9:31am on Thursday. Firearms officers were deployed at 9:34am. Shots were fired four minutes later.

The assailant wore a vest that had the appearance of an explosive device, but the police said it was later deemed “not to be viable”.

Footage of the scene shared on social media showed the attacker writhing on the ground when police shot him. An officer shouted to a nearby crowd: “He has a bomb,” and “move back.”

The attacker’s family said on Friday that they “fully distance” themselves from what they called his “heinous act”.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Faraj Al-Shamie, father of Jihad Al-Shamie, described the attack as a “profound shock”.

“The Al-Shamie family in the UK and abroad strongly condemns this heinous act, which targeted peaceful, innocent civilians,” he wrote.

GMP has had a troubled recent history. In 2019, a public inquiry concluded that the force’s fatal shooting seven years earlier of Anthony Grainger, an unarmed career criminal, had been based on flawed intelligence that exaggerated the threat he posed.

The public inquiry into the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, in which Salman Abedi murdered 22 people, criticised the force for waiting 140 minutes to declare a major incident — which it termed “a serious omission” that hindered the ability of other services to respond.

In 2020, GMP was placed into special measures by the policing inspectorate after failing to report one in five crimes over a year-long period. It was taken out of special measures in 2022.

Additional reporting by Jim Pickard