Armed police officers appear to have killed one of the victims of the Manchester synagogue terrorist attack and injured another after opening fire on the suspect. In a statement, the Greater Manchester police chief constable, Sir Stephen Watson, said the Home Office pathologist had provisionally determined that one of the two victims killed on Thursday died of a gunshot wound.
The suspect, Jihad al-Shamie, who had attacked worshippers with a knife, did not have a firearm and the only shots fired were by the police officers at the scene. Three people are in hospital with serious injuries suffered during the attack, one of whom is thought to have also suffered a gunshot wound that police said was not life-threatening.
It is believed the deceased victim and the person injured by a police gunshot were among those behind the synagogue door seeking to prevent the attacker from gaining entry. Watson said: '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.'
The two victims killed in the attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, were named by police on Friday as 53-year-old Adrian Daulby and 66-year-old Melvin Cravitz. They were killed after a car was used to ram into the grounds of the synagogue, before the attacker sought to stab worshippers in a six-minute rampage that ended only when armed officers shot at him twice, killing him at the door of the temple.
Shamie had been wearing what appeared to be an explosive vest but it was later confirmed not to be viable. Three others were seriously injured in the attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Police named the attacker as Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent, on Thursday night. Greater Manchester police said three other people – two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s – had been arrested 'on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism'.
