Two of the victims in the attack on a Manchester synagogue on Thursday were actually shot by police, with one killed, the U.K. police reported on Friday.
Two people were killed and three were injured in Thursday’s attack, in which Syrian-born Jihad al Shamie, whose name means Jihadi from Syria, allegedly rammed his truck into a crowd gathered for Yom Kippur at a synagogue, got out, and began stabbing Jewish congregants. Police responded within minutes and shot and killed the attacker. They revealed on Friday that of the five casualties, one death and one critical injury were caused by gunfire from police.
“The only shots fired were from GMP’s Authorized Firearms Officers as they worked to prevent the offender from entering the synagogue and causing further harm to our Jewish community,” Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Stephen Watson said in a statement.
“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 added.
The “two innocent members of our Jewish Community who sadly died as a result of the incident at Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue” were identified as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, according to a statement from the Greater Manchester Police. They didn’t say which person was killed by the police.
Police arrested three other people in connection with the attack: two men in their 30s and one woman in her 60s. An investigation continues, but the attack was initially categorized as a “marauding terror attack.” U.K. officials have announced increased security at Jewish places of worship across the country, especially in Manchester.
“People in North Manchester, Bury, Salford, within Jewish communities, and around synagogues can expect to see uniformed officers on patrol in vehicles and on foot throughout today, into this evening, and over the weekend,” City of Manchester District Commander David Meeney said in a statement, obtained by the Washington Post. “We are conscious of the significance of Fridays and Saturdays in the Jewish faith, and will be doing everything we can to help communities mark Shabbat with their families and friends as they wish.”
Shamie entered the United Kingdom as a child, and at the time of the attack, he lived a roughly six-minute drive away from the synagogue.
Manchester has undergone a major demographic transformation over the past few decades, which has created pressure in the area, similar to many cities across the U.K. and Europe. The area where the attack occurred is dominated by a majority-Jewish neighborhood situated right next to a majority-Muslim neighborhood.
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The war in Gaza has triggered a surge in hate crimes. The U.K.’s Home Office recorded the third-highest annual number of religious hate crimes in Greater Manchester’s history in March 2024.
Manchester was also the site of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the U.K.’s history, when an Islamic suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured over 1,000 at an Ariana Grande concert on May 22, 2017.