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.
The admission came on a tense day in Manchester, as mourners heckled the deputy prime minister and more details emerged about the attacker Jihad Al-Shamie (35).
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 the attacker dead, later identified as Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent.
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”.
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Chief constable Stephen Watson said 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 that one of three people hospitalised after the attack had also been wounded by gunfire, but was not suffering from life-threatening injuries.
The chief constable 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-Shamie outside.
The Community Security Trust, a Jewish security organisation, said that one of its personnel was among those seriously injured in the attack.
Rabbi Daniel Walker, who was leading the service at the time of Thursday’s attack, told ITV News that the assailant had shouted “threats” at the congregation in the synagogue, including: “I’m going to get you. I’m coming in.”
Police have named the two members of the public killed in the attack as Adrian Daulby (53) and Melvin Cravitz (66).
Rabbi Walker said that Mr Daulby had been shot as he helped to secure the synagogue doors.
Police were called to the synagogue at 9:31am on Thursday. Firearms officers were deployed at 9:34am. Shots were fired four minutes later.
Al-Shamie 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”.
Deputy prime minister David Lammy was barracked on Friday afternoon when he addressed a vigil in Manchester in memory of the attack’s victims. The crowd shouted “shame on you” as Mr Lammy said: “We must not let them divide us.”
Tony Levene, one of those booing Lammy, said afterwards he was protesting against the government’s “empty words” and failure to stop pro-Palestinian demonstrations he called “hate marches”.
A pro-Palestine march is expected in Manchester on Saturday, although police have urged people to “do the decent thing” and stay away.
Britain’s chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has also depicted the government’s decision to recognise the state of Palestine last month as a “reward for terrorism”.
Authorities are racing to gather information on Al-Shamie. Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Friday that Al-Shamie was not previously known to counterterrorism police. She said he had come to Britain 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.
Al-Shamie had been on police bail for an alleged rape, according to people familiar with the matter. The Guardian first reported the criminal investigation.
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.
Greater Manchester Police 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 significant incident, which it termed “a serious omission” that hindered the ability of other services to respond.
In 2020, Greater Manchester Police was placed into special measures by the policing inspectorate after failing to report one in five crimes over a year-long period. It was removed from special measures in 2022. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
