London – One of the two people killed in Thursday’s terrorist attack outside a synagogue in the northern English city of Manchester may have died of a gunshot fired by a police officer, the Greater Manchester Police said Friday. Two Jewish men, identified by police as Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz, were killed and three others were seriously wounded during the attack, which happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar.
Both of the victims were local residents.
A government pathologist advised the police “that he has provisionally determined that one of the deceased victims would appear to have suffered a wound consistent with a gunshot injury,” Stephen Watson, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police force, said in a statement Friday.
“It is currently believed that the suspect, Jihad Al Shamie, was not in possession of a firearm,” 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 police investigation continues at the scene near Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, where two people died in a terror attack, Oct. 3, 2025. / Credit: Peter Byrne/PA Images/Getty
“We have also been advised by medical professionals that one of the three victims currently receiving treatment in hospital, has also suffered a gunshot wound, which is mercifully not life threatening,” Watson added.
Police officers shot and killed the suspect, who investigators believed to be 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent, following a vehicle and stabbing attack outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on Thursday morning.
Officers were called to the synagogue at about 9.30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET) by a member of the public who said he’d seen a car being driven toward members of the public.
The police said Thursday that the attacker drove directly at people outside the synagogue and then attacked people with a knife. The attack happened while a large group of worshippers was inside the synagogue, but the suspect did not manage to enter the building.
In his statement on Friday, Watson said the only shots fired during the incident were fired by police “as they worked to prevent the offender from entering the synagogue and causing further harm to our Jewish community.”
The attacker wore a vest that looked like it could contain explosives, but police later confirmed that there were no viable explosives found.
U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Lady Victoria Starmer speak with a police officer during a visit to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, where two people died in a terrorist attack the previous day, Oct. 3, 2025. / Credit: Peter Byrne/PA Images/Getty
The police said Thursday night that three other individuals had been arrested “on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism” in connection with the attack, whom the force identified only as “two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s.”
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the scene of the attack Friday with his wife, speaking with police and other officials outside the synagogue.
In a social media post on Thursday night, Starmer called the attack “a vile terrorist attack that attacked Jews, because they are Jews.”
“Antisemitism is a hatred that is rising, once again. Britain must defeat it, once again. To every Jewish person in this country: I promise that I will do everything in my power to guarantee you the security you deserve,” he said.
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