Manchester Synagogue Stabbing Suspect Named – Here’s Everything We Know About Him

Police have named the man responsible for stabbing two Jewish people to death at a Manchester synagogue yesterday morning.

Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent, burst into Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in north Manchester after first ramming his Kia into a man at the synagogue entrance. He got out and began stabbing people before eventually being shot dead by police.

Here’s everything we know about Jihad Al-Shamie and the incident thus far:

• Al-Shamie entered the UK as a young child, and was granted British citizenship in 2006 when he was still a minor.
• At the time of the attack, he was residing in Prestwich (Langley Crescent area), which is not far from the synagogue in North Manchester.
• The attack took place on 2 October 2025, during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, when the synagogue would have been more active.
• The two victims have been identified as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66.
• The incident was a combined vehicle ramming + stabbing attack: the suspect drove a car into pedestrians outside the synagogue and then got out and stabbed people.
• Police say he was wearing a vest that looked like an explosive device, prompting deployment of a bomb squad. That vest was later assessed to be non‑viable (i.e. not a functioning explosive).
• He was shot and killed by armed police officers at the scene. The shooting occurred very shortly after the attack began (within minutes).
• Initially, police withheld confirmation of his death because of “safety issues” concerning the suspicious items he had on him.
• Authorities have arrested three additional individuals in connection with the attack — two men in their 30s and one woman in her 60s — on suspicion of terrorism‑related offenses (commission, preparation, instigation).
• At this stage, the motive is being treated as terrorism; investigators are exploring antisemitism and Islamist extremist ideology as possible motives.
• He was not previously known to Britain’s “Prevent” counterterrorism programme (i.e. his name did not appear on their records) according to police statements.
• Police and counterterrorism authorities are analysing his electronic devices and digital footprint to determine how and when he may have been radicalised, and whether he acted alone or had support.

Here’s an image of a bomb disposal expert checking the body of Al-Shamie for explosives:

A couple of Al-Shamie’s neighbours spoke to The Telegraph and Manchester Evening News about living next to him in Prestwich.

One said: ‘He lived there 10 years, with no wife or kids that I could see. He never seemed to speak to anyone around here. I recognised his little car, the Kia, because he’d always park it badly outside ours.

She added: ‘I’d see him walking around in his pyjamas and slip-on sandals, carrying a shopping bag.

‘He was quite bulked up and used to keep his exercise weights in his garage. I’d see them there.’

Another neighbour said: ‘I didn’t know his name, but he used to bench press in the garden and he’d go over and use the shops over the road and come back.’

What can you say really? It’s just such a sad loss of his life for the two innocent people who were murdered (not counting the attacker, obviously). Big up to the police in Manchester who seemed to have responded quickly and decisively within minutes and almost certainly saved more lives from being taken in the process.

Fortunately these sorts of incidents are rare in the UK (at least compared with our friends over the Atlantic), and the casualty rate is always relatively low, even in this case with the attacker having a knife and vehicle. Good thing we don’t have the sort of weaponry available here that you can buy in a Walmart in the US, eh?

For the man who accidentally set himself on fire while trying to burn down a synagogue, click HERE.