Chilling second Manchester synagogue attacker units off from house on his approach to kill

Chilling new footage shows Manchester attacker Jihad Al-Shamie set out from his home ready to kill worshippers at a local synagogue.

The 35-year-old is filmed emerging out of Langley Crescent, Prestwich, before joining Old Bury Road in his Black Kia Picanto on October 2.

He was described by a local resident, who had checked his security camera recording, as driving ‘calmly’ as if it’s a ‘normal day’. 

Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent and cannabis smoker who was ‘inspired by extreme Islamist ideology’, travelled to Heaton Park Synagogue in Crumpsall where he rammed into a volunteer guard and stabbed a man to death.

He was later shot dead and another synagogue member was accidentally fatally shot by police marksmen.

The video owner, who did not want to be named, checked his security camera footage after seeing police later raid Al-Shamie’s terraced home.

He said he was left ‘shocked’ by what he had witnessed, adding: ‘You can see him driving up Langley Road and waiting before entering Bury Road.

‘I don’t want to imagine what is going on inside his head but he knows what he is about to do. He’s just calmly driving as if it’s a normal day.

‘He didn’t live very far from me – it is shocking knowing someone who has committed such crimes lives so close by.’ 

Once arriving at the synagogue, Al-Shamie drove his car into a volunteer security guard standing outside the temple.

He is then understood to have left the car and stabbed a man to death.

The depraved attacker was wearing a fake explosives vest, before armed police shot him dead within minutes of arriving at the scene after receiving information of his attack.

Two worshippers were killed – 53-year-old Adrian Daulby and 66-year-old Melvin Cravitz, both from Crumpsall in Greater Manchester.

Four other people were injured in the attack.

It emerged last week Jihad Al-Shamie had attended an Islamic teachings conference at the Masjid Sunnah mosque in Nelson, Greater Manchester, in 2022.

In a statement, the mosque condemned Al-Shamie and his actions adding terrorism was in direct contradictions to the teachings of Islam.

It stated: ‘It has come to our attention that the individual responsible for this heinous act had attended Masjid Sunnah in Nelson for our Annual National Knowledge Conference in 2022.

‘The conference he attended focused on core Islamic teachings, including Tawḥīd (Monotheism), Ṣalāh (Prayer), and Islamic Fiqh (Jurisprudence).

‘Masjid Sunnah has always condemned all forms of extremism and terrorism. Our mosque is known within the local community for its dedication to social, educational, and charitable initiatives.

‘We unequivocally condemn this act of violence. Such an attack, like all forms of terrorism, has no place in our society and is in direct contradiction to the teachings of Islām.’

It has also emerged that al-Shamie was accused of raping two women ahead of his synagogue attack.

He had been accused of rape by two different women, one in December 2024 and the second just last month.

The father-of-three had a tangled love life and was married to at least three women simultaneously.

He was a prolific user of the Muzmatch dating app, trawling for women under the nickname ‘J’.

Details of the knifeman’s criminal record were also revealed, including a conviction for possession of Class B drugs in 2012, when he was about 22.

He also had a ‘street warning’ for cannabis when he was a teenager and had received a penalty notice for shoplifting.

Al-Shamie reportedly rang 999 and said, ‘I have killed two Jews in the name of Islamic State’, during the October 2 atrocity.

Counter-terror police believe the Syrian-born UK citizen was influenced by ‘extremist Islamist ideology’.

Al-Shamie was facing mounting debts and the collapse of his marriage, with his wife leaving the family home in Prestwich with their three sons six months ago.

Residents said he was a loner who spent his days in pyjamas, bulking up by weightlifting in his garden and annoying neighbours by parking his battered Kia badly.

It later emerged that in 2022 he had married a Muslim convert in a secret online ceremony.

She only found out later that he was still married to Ikra Sulehman, with whom he went on to have three children.

He later took a third wife in an Islamic ceremony, NHS worker and mother-of-five Elizabeth Davis.

The second wife has told the Daily Mail how ‘controlling’ Al-Shamie initially seemed ‘lovely’ and ‘genuine’, only to ‘flip’ and become ‘intimidating’ and aggressive.

She said Al-Shamie subjected her to coercive behaviour and also raped her, although she did not report him to police at the time.

Al-Shamie – who she said was obsessed with clean living and watching foreign news bulletins – refused her pleas to grant her a divorce and kept demanding to come round for sex.

The woman – who has children by a previous partner – finally stopped responding to his messages last year after becoming sick of the long-distance relationship.

When she found out he was the attacker shot dead last week, she told the Daily Mail her first thought was: ‘Why?’

‘I’ve let you in my home, I’ve given you my time, you’ve harassed me for years, you married me and wouldn’t divorce me so I’m still technically married to him to this day,’ she said.

‘I wouldn’t say he’s got the mindset of being a terrorist, personally, from what I knew of him.

‘But at the same time how aggressive he was, how manipulating he was, was he this terrorist all along or was he crying out for help, who knows?’

Police arrested six people in connection with the synagogue attack, however all were later released without charge.

The police watchdog has said it had found no misconduct by three armed officers who opened fire during the attack.

Instead, the Independent Office for Police Conduct is treating the officers as witnesses in its ongoing investigation.