Geoff Haliwell, a neighbour of Jihad al-Shamie, said that the killer’s family had lived in the house for about 20 years. He said Shamie initially lived with both parents and two brothers. The father moved out about six or seven years ago but would return in a car with a French number plate.
Hailwell, 72, said: “I think he was the oldest of three brothers. One of the others moved out a few years ago. The dad came back occasionally.”
He said he did not know if the killer worked but said he often used a weightlifting bench in the front garden. “They are a nice family. He was always straightforward. He dressed normally, sometimes in traditional [Islamic] dress.”
Cat that victim used to feed seen mewing outside home
Cookie Vadve, 67, who also lives on the street, said her 12-year-old granddaughter had been “sobbing” at the news of Adrian Daulby’s death. “He was always giving them gifts, he would never forget their birthdays,” she said.
A ginger cat belonging to his neighbour that Daulby used to feed was mewing outside his home.
Second victim was ‘gentle soul’ who loved nature
Neighbours described Adrian Daulby as “a gentle and innocent soul” who loved nature and looking after children.
A Muslim family who live next door to his home, where he lived alone a few hundred metres from the synagogue, said he was a cancer survivor who spent his time tending his garden and running a YouTube channel.
Hussain, who did not want to give his surname, said: “He was very outdoors. His garden was his life. He was one of them who absolutely loved and adored kids as well. He didn’t have any of his own but the street’s kids were like his kids. He’d give them presents.”
Daulby had only recently started going back to the synagogue after his own father died. Hussain said: “It was three, four years ago that he just started going again. I spoke to him on Tuesday and he was taking about how it was going to be a big celebration day but because he was not feeling too good he was not going to fast. But he was debating if he was going to the synagogue or not.”
Attacker ‘may have sent MP death threats in 2012’
John Howell received threatening emails after he spoke about Israel’s right to defend itself
CHRIS MCANDREW/UK PARLIAMENT
Counterterrorism police are to investigate whether the synagogue attacker made death threats to an MP over his position on Israel.
John Howell, the Conservative MP for Henley until last year, received threatening emails in 2012 after he spoke about Israel’s right to defend itself when it came under rocket fire.
One of them was from a “Jihad Alshamie”, who told him: “It is people like you who deserve to die.”
• Read in full: Police investigate whether synagogue attacker Jihad al-Shamie threatened MP
Former minister’s father-in-law was inside synagogue
Sir Grant Shapps, the former Conservative defence secretary, told The Times on Thursday that his father-in-law was inside the synagogue in Manchester when the attack happened.
As he drove to see him with his wife, Belinda, he said: “It’s just shocking. How can someone have so much hate in their hearts that they want to go out and murder people, also knowing they would probably die themselves?
“It’s just horrific. It’s extremely worrying. It’s barbaric.” He said terrorism was a “cancer that needs attacking”.
• Read in full: Grant Shapps’s father-in-law came face to face with terrorist
Attacker ‘an odd man who kept himself to himself’
Kate Mcleish, 38, a neighbour, said Jihad al-Shamie had lived in Langley Crescent for about ten years. She believed he lived alone.
“I always thought he was an odd guy,” she said. “He was always scruffily dressed — pyjamas and the clothes you would wear at home watching the TV. He always wore flip flops and a religious hat.
“He kept himself to himself and did not speak with anyone. He had a scruffy car, a black Kia. I don’t think he worked unless he was working from home.
“I always assumed he lived alone. Sometimes I was seeing a man visiting. I last saw him a couple of weeks ago.”
Pictured: Gaza protests in London last night
Police scuffle with protesters in Parliament Square on Thursday against Israel’s interception of the Gaza aid flotilla
GUY SMALLMAN/GETTY IMAGES
GUY SMALLMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Tributes to ‘beloved pillar of the local community’
Elchonon and Hindi Cohen, Jewish friends of Melvin Cravitz, visited his home on Friday morning to give their condolences after hearing of his death.
The couple described him as a chatty pillar of the local community who was beloved by all and attended the synagogue every week.
Mr Cohen said: “He was a lovely person. Always with a joke, always making a smile. He had his humour.”
Mrs Cohen added: “He would visit us often. Before every festival we would have him over for a meal. He was very beloved. He was a figure round here. If you saw Melvin you stopped and talked.
“He didn’t always have it easy. He had health issues, but he was always with a joke and a smile.”
Cravitz, who had had two heart operations, had no children of his own but was regarded as a grandfatherly figure by his wife Karen’s children from an earlier marriage. “He didn’t have immediate family of his own but the family he had he was desperate to connect with,” said Mrs Cohen. “This is a tragedy for all of them.”
Met urges pro-Palestinian protesters to cancel London demonstration
The Metropolitan Police have repeated calls for a planned pro-Palestinian protest on Saturday to be cancelled.
A statement from the Met published on X on Friday said: “The horrific terrorist attack that took place in Manchester yesterday will have caused significant fear and concern in communities across the UK, including here in London.
“Yet at a time when we want to be deploying every available officer to ensure the safety of those communities, we are instead having to plan for a gathering of more than 1,000 people in Trafalgar Square on Saturday in support of a terrorist organisation. By choosing to encourage mass law-breaking on this scale, Defend Our Juries are drawing resources away from the communities of London at a time when they are needed most.
“We urge them to do the responsible thing and delay or cancel their plans.”
Neighbour recognised attacker
A neighbour of Jihad al-Shamie said she recognised the attacker in media coverage.
“I recognised his little car, the Kia, because he’d always park it badly outside ours. I’d see him walking around in his pyjamas and slip-on sandals, carrying a shopping bag”, the resident of Langley Crescent, Prestwich, said.
“He was quite bulked up and used to keep his exercise weights in his garage. I’d see him there”, she told The Daily Telegraph.
Deport those displaying anti-British sentiment, says Jenrick
The shadow justice secretary has said that foreign nationals displaying “anti-British sentiment” should be deported in a crackdown on antisemitism.
Robert Jenrick told Sky News: “This isn’t a problem you can just throw money at, it’s not just about putting up more fences, or providing more stab-proof vests or even having more armed officers in the key locations. It is about antisemitism and extremism in society.
“There is no easy answer, but it does mean that we have absolute zero tolerance for it wherever we see it. Use Home Office programmes like Prevent robustly to reform and educate individuals who have this ideology within them where it’s possible.
“Where it’s not, these people should be in jail for a very long time to keep our streets safe and if they’re foreign nationals and they are displaying anti-British sentiment — because it’s not just anti-Jewish, it’s anti-British sentiment — then they should be deported, they should not abuse our hospitality any longer.
Call for public inquiry into antisemitism
A former BBC1 controller has called on Sir Keir Starmer to personally lead a public inquiry into antisemitism after yesterday’s terror attack.
Danny Cohen told Times Radio the prime minister could “seize the opportunity” to establish a national inquiry straightaway.
He said: “I’d like to see him ensure that there’s no place for antisemitism in our public services, in our schools and universities. I think something that maybe listeners may not be aware of is that Jewish schools and synagogues, regardless of what’s happened on October 7 in this country, have to have full-time professional security.
“What other minority in this country has to have its schools protected by security on a daily basis? I think that tells us that something has gone badly wrong in our society, and it needs urgently addressing.”
Flags in the House of Commons have been lowered for the victims of the attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, agreed for the flags to be lowered until 8pm on Friday.
Tributes to ‘lovely bloke’ killed in attack
A Muslim neighbour of Melvin Cravitz, who described herself as one of his best friends, said he was a “lovely, lovely bloke”, adding “I can’t fault him”.
The woman said: “Him and wife and his wife Karen are my best friends. I’m in shock myself this is absolutely horrible.”
One of the men who was murdered in the terror attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation can be pictured for the first time.
Melvin Cravitz, 66, died alongside Adrian Daulby, 53, as worshippers were celebrating the holy day of Yom Kippur at the synagogue in Greater Manchester.
‘Only person responsible is attacker himself’
The home secretary said it was important not to “blur those lines” between discussions of the attacker and legitimate discussions of immigration policy.
Shabana Mahmood told the Today programme that the attacker, who was shot and killed by police, came to the UK as a “small child” with his family and became a naturalised British citizen while still a minor, in 2006.
She said: “I think it is entirely appropriate that a government facing challenges of integration and concerns about the scale and the speed of migration … that we do talk and shape a debate about what our expectations are of people who come and make their lives here.
“But the only person that bears responsibility for what happened yesterday is the attacker himself … we should not conflate that attack with the position of those who have come lawfully to our country, who have lived here, made their lives here, go about their business and follow the laws of our land.”
Investigations continue at site of attack
Forensic investigators near the Heaton Park synagogue on Friday
PETER BYRNE/PA
Police markers indicate points of interest
HANNAH MCKAY/REUTERS
Home secretary ‘surprised’ by terrorist’s name
The home secretary was “surprised” by the Greater Manchester synagogue attacker’s name, saying she had “never heard someone being called Jihad”.
Shabana Mahmood was asked on LBC about the attacker’s name, Jihad al-Shamie, which the presenter Nick Ferrari translated as “struggle of the Syrian”.
She said: “I was very surprised to discover that name myself. Actually, as a Muslim, I’ve never heard someone being called Jihad, but it is the name that he was born with — that has always been his name.”
I don’t have power to stop protests, says Mahmood
The home secretary has accepted she does not have any legal power to prevent a protest in London from going ahead this Saturday.
Asked whether she had any legal power to cancel the Defend Our Juries protest, which is in support of Palestine Action, Shabana Mahmood told Today on BBC Radio 4: “No, we have very strong provisions that protect the right to protest. The most important question, operationally and in terms of the law, is whether the police are able to police and respond to a protest.”
Mahmood said the police had assured her they were able to police the upcoming demonstration, but added: “I can take my lead from the police. If they were to tell me that there was an inability to respond and to police the protest, then there are powers that are available.” She did not explain what those powers were.
Green leader defends deputy over previous ‘antisemitic comments’
The leader of the Green Party has responded to criticisms of allegedly antisemitic comments made by members of his party.
Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, was questioned on the BBC’s Today programme over whether Mothin Ali — who said after October 7 that Israelis were “not victims” but “occupiers [and] colonialists” — was suitable to be a deputy leader, despite having later apologised.
Mothin Ali, one of the Greens’ deputy leaders
ALAMY
Polanski said the views expressed by Ali were “contextual”. He added: “As a Muslim man, I can only imagine what it feels like to know that every single day in Palestine the equivalent of a classroom of children are dying.”
• ‘The Greens’ new deputy leader unleashed hate on my family’
He added: “We need to have a nuanced conversation about what is a genocide and talk about what is actually happening as opposed to the words that people use. Do we need to take responsibility for the language we use? Absolutely, myself included.
“I think an apology is a responsibility. I also think the very obvious thing in this conversation is that Mothin is a Muslim man and we know that Islamophobia is also on the rise. He also defends people’s right to pray and their faith. He put out a statement yesterday about the antisemitic attack that I found emotional, I found moving and connected with me as a Jewish man.”
Get a grip on demonstrations, Chief Rabbi urges PM
Sir Ephraim Mirvis giving an address during a vigil days after the October 7 attacks
HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The Chief Rabbi has called on the government to “get a grip” on “dangerous” pro-Palestinian marches, which he said often contained outright antisemitism and support for Hamas.
Sir Ephraim Mirvis told Today on BBC Radio 4: “Ever since October 7, 2023, there are so many people in our Jewish community and world beyond it who have wondered why are such marches allowed … Some of them contain outright antisemitism, outright support for Hamas — not every single person — however, there is so much of this, which certainly is dangerous to many of us in our society.
“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. The two are directly linked and therefore we call on the government, yet again, we have been doing so continuously, we say get a grip on these demonstrations, they are dangerous.”
‘We face antisemitism in every aspect of our communal life’
Antisemitism has risen “extremely sharply” since October 7, 2023, following a pattern Jews have experienced whenever there is conflict in the Middle East, according to Marc Levy, chief executive of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region.
“Obviously we’ve never had to endure a conflict that lasted this long, but it is right that there has been a failing in several sections of society to adequately deal with the scourge of antisemitism, given that we have seen incidents in every aspect of our communal life whether that is in universities, schools, workplaces, even in the NHS, and our cultural venues,” he told LBC.
Levy said he had “special memories” of his whole family at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, which he has attended since he was a child.
He said his father was “one of the people barricading the door to keep the terrorist out”.
PM attends London synagogue
Sir Keir Starmer attends a London synagogue with his wife, Victoria, Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper
The prime minister and his wife attended the West London Synagogue last night after the terror attack in Manchester.
He was joined by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, for a service to mark the end of the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur.
Starmer was pictured wearing a white kippah. Lady Starmer’s family are Jewish and they occasionally take their children to the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood, although they are both non-religious.
Robert Jenrick: Antisemitism has gone unchallenged too long
The shadow justice secretary has argued “antisemitism and extremism has gone unchallenged for too long in our society” and pointed to the “soft left expressing things like ‘globalise the intifada’” as part of the problem.
Robert Jenrick pointed to universities where swastikas have been painted on the doors of Jewish students and professors with “outright antisemitic views” being allowed to continue teaching.
Show some humanity, Mahmood tells protesters
The home secretary said the protests last night were “disgraceful” and urged people considering protesting over the coming days to “show some humanity”.
Shabana Mahmood told Times Radio: “I think the behaviour that we’ve seen last night is fundamentally un-British. I think it’s disgraceful and I would call on everybody who is considering protest in the next day or two to take a step back and to show some humanity and some love towards a community that is grieving.
“I think that is the right thing to do. People can get on with their protest. Those issues unfortunately are not likely to come to an end in the next day or two. I think a little time to give the community here and across our country the chance to grieve, the chance to process what has happened and the chance to come together.”
Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager.
Enable cookiesAllow cookies onceProtests’ strain on counterterror resources
The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation said we may need to “look again” at whether marches can legally be allowed during periods where the terrorism threat level is high.
Jonathan Hall KC reflected on the fact the police have sent a “begging letter” to organisers of a Defend Our Juries march on Saturday, to ask them not to hold their rally so policing and counterterrorism resources can be diverted to protect Jews, a request that the organisers refused.
He said: “There may come a point where the counter-terrorist burden on the police and the need to protect people is so great and specific that we do need to look again at whether or not marches should be allowed to go ahead in those precise circumstances.”
Hall said there was no legislation in force that could be used to stop Saturday’s march and he said any potential legislation would need to be “extremely carefully looked at” before being introduced.
Protests after attack ‘un-British’, says Shabana Mahmood
The home secretary said the protests held after the terrorist attack last night were “un-British behaviour” and urged people to show “sensitivity” after the killings.
Shabana Mahmood told Times Radio: “I understand the strength of feeling that events in the Middle East have for people, not just here but around the world.
“It is really imperative that we all stand together united as a country and do not allow things that are happening abroad to form tensions here at home.
“I would ask everyone considering going to a protest to step back and reconsider.”
Attacker was not known to police
The man who carried out an antisemitic terror attack in Greater Manchester was not known to the police, the home secretary has confirmed.
Shabana Mahmood told Times Radio: “The attacker was not known to the security services. We know that he is a British national of Syrian descent.
“He came to this country as a young child and was naturalised as a British citizen when he was still a minor, but beyond that there isn’t any other information I can share. He was not known to the counterterror police.”
Keir Starmer: Hatred is on the rise
Sir Keir Starmer warned that antisemitic hatred was “rising once again” as police were deployed to protect Jewish sites of worship across the country after the attack.
Sir Keir Starmer speaks at 10 Downing Street after the incident in Crumpsall
JAMES MANNING/AP
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said that the terror attack was the “tragic result” of an “unrelenting wave of Jew hatred on our streets, campuses, on social media and elsewhere”.
“Our hearts are shattered,” he said in a statement on X. “Emerging from the holy fast of Yom Kippur, British Jews are now grasping the full extent of today’s terror attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester. This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come.”
Two men killed the terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester have been named.
Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, died after Jihad al-Shamie drove into a group of people outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue before stabbing a man, police said.
Three others remain in hospital with serious injuries.
Shamie was shot dead by police seven minutes after officers were alerted to the attack in Crumpsall on Thursday morning, which took place on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack in connection with the killings.
Killer was never referred for extremism
Shamie is thought to have been an Islamist terrorist but his records do not show that he was ever referred to the government’s counterterrorism scheme, Prevent. He does not appear to have been under active investigation by the security services.
The Home Office said Shamie had entered the UK as a very young child, and was granted British citizenship in 2006 as a minor.
Police and security services are on high alert for copycat attacks after Thursday’s incident.
Grant Shapps’s father-in-law was in synagogue
Sir Grant Shapps
TOLGA AKMEN/EPA
Sir Grant Shapps, the former defence secretary, said his family had been frantically trying to reach his father-in-law, Michael Goldstone, who was at the synagogue. It was not until they saw video of him leaving the building on Sky News that the family knew he was safe.
Goldstone, Shapps said, had come “face to face” with the terrorist, “holding the inside of the door” as he tried to break his way in.
• Read in full: Grant Shapps’s father-in-law came face to face with terrorist
Two dead after terror attack
A suspected Islamist terrorist killed two people outside a Manchester synagogue on Thursday, and was shot dead himself. Three people are in hospital, seriously injured, and three people have been arrested.
The attacker was named by police on Thursday evening as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent.
Shamie, wearing a belt resembling an explosive device, was shot dead outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, having driven his car into members of the public before attacking people with a knife. He was fatally shot within seven minutes of the first report to the police. It was later confirmed that the suspected bomb belt was “not viable”.