Synagogue killer 'preached' about Koran to children living near his home after becoming 'radicalised' during Covid, say neighbours
Synagogue attacker Jihad Al-Shamie attempted to preach about the Koran to children living near his home after becoming 'radicalised' during the Covid pandemic, neighbours claimed today.
The marijuana-smoking bigamist - who had a tangled love life involving several different women - started wearing traditional Islamic dress and holding 'gatherings' in the front garden of the family home, they said.
As one of the two victims of last Thursday's attack was praised as a 'quiet man' who became a 'hero' as his funeral took place, more details emerged about the Islamic extremist's 'intimidating' behaviour.
Police have said the Syria-born 35-year-old was on bail for rape when he went on the rampage at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Worshipper Melvin Cravitz, 66, was killed in the attack along with Adrian Daulby, 53, who leaped from his seat to block the doors as knife-wielding Al-Shamie tried to get inside.
Tragically as armed police were scrambled to the scene and shot Al-Shamie dead, Mr Daulby is understood to have been fatally injured by a stray bullet.
A father of three young children, Al-Shamie was potentially married to two different women and obsessed with messaging girls on a Muslim dating site.
After leaving school, he began a degree course in English, media and cultural studies at Liverpool John Moore's University in 2011.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, who was shot dead minutes after he targeted Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester. It is believed he had two wives and was a father of three children
Al-Shamie travelled to Britain with his family as a young child and was granted UK citizenship in 2006, aged around 16
But he dropped out after 12 months, with friends saying he was 'spending too much time smoking weed, working out and playing video games'.
At his family's council house in Prestwich - just over a mile from the synagogue - he spent his days in flip flops and pyjamas and working out with weights in his garden, neighbours said.
One said 'everything changed' during the Covid pandemic and he started wearing traditional Islamic robes.
'He was coming up the road preaching to kids about the Koran,' one told the Guardian.
'It was quite intimidating. It was intrusive.'
'Followers' would also been gathering in his garden and praying, the neighbour said.
After Al-Shamie's trauma surgeon father Faraj - who praised Hamas fighters in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks - moved out around 15 years, he is said to have become more 'reclusive'.
Melvin Cravitz, 66, from Crumpsall, died in the deadly attack on Thursday
Adrian Daulby, 53, also died in the attack after being accidentally shot by police
Greater Manchester Police have said that Al-Shamie 'may have been influenced by extreme Islamist ideology'.
But they have stressed that he was previously unknown to counter-terrorism policing.
Four people arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts remain in custody after police were granted a further five days to question them.
They are two men, aged 30 and 32, and a woman, 61, all arrested in Prestwich, and a 46-year-old woman arrested in Farnworth.
An 18-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man who were arrested in Farnworth, were released with no further action on Saturday.
