One of the two men killed in a car and knife attack on a synagogue in the city of Manchester appears to have been killed by a bullet fired by a police officer as worshippers tried to stop the attacker getting into the building, law enforcement authorities said Friday.
Police said local residents Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died in the attack on the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in the Manchester suburb of Crumpsall on Thursday. Three other people are hospitalized in serious condition.
Police shot and killed a suspect seven minutes after he rammed a car into pedestrians outside the synagogue and then attacked them with a knife. He wore what appeared to be an explosives belt, which was found to be fake.
Greater Manchester Police chief Stephen Watson said a forensic examination has provisionally determined that one of those killed had a gunshot wound. He said the attacker did not have a gun, and “this injury may sadly have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence” of police actions.
He said one of the hospitalized victims also appears to have been shot.
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“It is believed that both victims were close together behind the synagogue door, as worshippers acted bravely to prevent the attacker from gaining entry,” Watson said.
The assault took place as people gathered at the Orthodox synagogue on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the head of Orthodox Judaism in Britain, said the attack was the result of “an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred” on the streets and online.
“This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come,” he wrote on social media.
Attacker was not known to police
Police identified the attacker as Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent who entered the United Kingdom as a young child and became a citizen in 2006. Al-Shamie translates into English as “the Syrian,” and authorities are unsure whether that is his birth name.
Police said the crime is being investigated as a terrorist attack. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the attacker was not previously known to police or to Prevent, a national counterterror program that tries to identify people at risk of radicalization.
Mahmood said "it’s too early to say” whether the attacker acted alone or was part of a cell.
Police said they are still probing the attacker’s motive. Officers arrested three people Thursday on suspicion of the preparation or commission of acts of terrorism. They are two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s.
Neighbors of the attacker in the Manchester suburb of Prestwich, a couple of miles (about 3 kilometers) from the synagogue, said Al-Shamie's family had lived in the house for years. Several described seeing Al-Shamie lifting weights and working out in the backyard.
Geoff Halliwell, who lives nearby, said he appeared to be “a straightforward, ordinary lad.”
Religious leaders condemn the attack
Religious and political leaders condemned the attack and pledged to reassure Britain’s Jewish community, which numbers about 300,000.
Anglican bishop Sarah Mullally, who was named Friday as the next leader of the Church of England, said the “horrific violence” was a sign of “hatred that rises up through fractures across our communities.
“Hatred and racism of any kind cannot be allowed to tear us apart,” she said.
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Police said extra officers would be on the streets of Manchester on Friday and through the weekend.
Recorded antisemitic incidents in the U.K. have risen sharply since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews. More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest six-month total reported since the record set over the same period a year earlier.
Calls for pro-Palestinian protests to be canceled
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria visited the scene of the attack on Friday morning.
Starmer has denounced the “vile” assailant who “attacked Jews because they are Jews.” He promised British Jews that he would do “everything in my power to guarantee you the security that you deserve.”
He said the country would come together "to wrap our arms around your community and show you that Britain is a place where you and your family are safe, secure and belong.”
Some politicians and religious leaders claimed pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which have been held regularly since the war in Gaza began, had played a role in spreading hatred of Jews. Some say chants such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” incite violence. Others, including Jews who support the protests, say they want a ceasefire, an end to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Mirvis, the chief rabbi, urged authorities to “get a grip on these demonstrations. They are dangerous.”
“You cannot separate the words on our streets, the actions of people in this way, and what inevitably results, which was yesterday’s terrorist attack," he told the BBC.
Mahmood, the home secretary, said 40 people were arrested on Thursday evening at protests that were unrelated to the synagogue attack and were organized in response to the Israeli navy's interception of a flotilla attempting to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
She said it was “dishonorable” that the protests had not been canceled after the Manchester attack.
Police in London urged organizers to call off a protest planned for Saturday to oppose the banning of the group Palestine Action. Organizers said they would not cancel the demonstration.
