The terrorist responsible for the Manchester synagogue attack was reportedly out on bail for alleged rape when he carried out the massacre – and struggling with debt after splitting from his wife.
Jihad al-Shamie, 35, was being investigated by police in relation to a sexual attack alleged to have taken place earlier this year, The Guardian reported.
It is also thought that the killer had additional criminal convictions, although he was not being monitored by British counter-terrorism officers.
Al-Shamie was also struggling with debt after splitting up with his wife and young son at the time at the time of his rampage, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Al-Shamie, 35, had been living with his mother and one of his two brothers at his old family home in a council house in the quiet Langley Crescent, Prestwich, Greater Manchester.
Neighbours in the quiet cul-de-sac said that Syrian-born Al-Shamie appeared to be ‘a bit of a loner’, and was often seen in traditional Islamic clothes, and lifting weights in the garden.
He is believed to have been working as a self-employed tutor teaching English and computer programming, according to what appears to be a listing for him on the findtutors.co.uk website
The profile which was drawn up with an anglicised version of his name when he apparently was living in Leeds, West Yorkshire, stated that he spoke Arabic and was available for online classes to teach English for £10 an hour or programming for £12 an hour.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, who was shot dead minutes after he targeted Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester yesterday. It is believed he was a father and is pictured holding a child
Al-Shamie travelled to Britain with his family as a young child and was granted UK citizenship in 2006, when he would have been around 16
The road where the arrests took place, White House Avenue, about 1,500ft from the synagogue, was cordoned off and put under armed guard
But the birth certificate for his son who was born on October 22 last year at the North Manchester General Hospital, Crumpsall, lists Al-Shamie’s occupation as being ‘full time father’, suggesting he was not working at the time of the birth.
Al-Shamie’s father shared a picture on Facebook of his son holding his baby in his arms in hospital after the birth. The post was captioned: ‘Great welcome grandson’.
Insolvency records show that Al-Shamie, who carried out his murderous attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, was subject to a 12 month Debt Relief Order taken out on September 5 – just over six weeks before his son was born.
Debt Relief Orders are an alternative to personal bankruptcy for people who have debts of less than £50,000, have savings or valuable items worth less than £2,000 in total, and do not have enough money at the end of the month to make their debt repayments.
The order allowed Al-Shamie to stop paying his debts or the accruing interest, and then having them wiped out at the end of the 12 month period which ended for him on September 5 this year. The public records do not reveal the size of his debts.
Al-Shamie is said to have moved to the UK with his family when he was a young child and was granted British citizenship in 2006, although it is not known if the family arrived as asylum seekers or through an immigration scheme.
His father Faraj Al-Shamie is understood to have been a trauma doctor, often working overseas in trouble spots such as Iraq and South Sudan, but later got divorced from his mother Formoz and apparently moved to France, leaving her to bring up their three sons alone.
Videos taken on an old camcorder and posted on his father’s YouTube channel can still be seen online and show the family enjoying days out in the UK, a young Al-Shamie playing with his brothers, and the family even returning to Syria on holiday.
One video dated from July 1995 features Al-Shamie as a five-year-old at with his two younger brothers, and his parents as they entertained one of his father’s adult male friends visiting their former terraced home in Delaunays Road, Crumpsall.
The clip shows Al-Shamie dressed in a maroon top showing a photograph to his father’s friend who tells him: ‘You’re a good boy’.
Another video which was said to have been taken five years later in 2000 showed Al-Shamie and his brothers playing in the rear garden of another home that the family had moved to in Crescent Road, Crumpsall.
It featured Al-Shamie, wearing a striped top, light coloured trousers and trainers, pushing his younger brother on a swing, while appearing to suck his thumb, as his youngest brother played with a toy gun next to a set of a plastic white table and chairs under a parasol.
A further, undated video showed Al-Shamie picking up and cuddling a black and white cat in a garden, alongside his brothers
Yet another video apparently taken by his father features all three brothers at a Christmas nativity play performance in a school hall decorated with a Christmas tree and tinsel while watched by scores of parents.
The caption for the grainy and out-of-focus film states it was taken at Crumpsall Lane High School, although no such school exists and it is believed to be have been taken by Al-Shamie’s father at Crumpsall Lane Primary School.
Younger children dressed as traditional Nativity characters and animals in the 30 minute clip can be heard singing Christmas songs such as ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ and ‘Little Donkey’ while older ones sit down.
Melvin Cravitz, 66, (left) and Adrian Daulby, 53 (right) both died during Thursday’s terror attack
Other videos on the Youtube channel show the family on trips to the Trafford and Arndale shopping centres in Manchester, Chester Zoo, and the now defunct Camelot theme park which operated near Chorley, Lancashire, between 1983 and 2012.
A more recent one, apparently taken in 2008, shows pictures of him and his family visiting the Roman ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert.
A friend of the Al-Shamie family told the Daily Mail how Jihad’s father had moved to France after divorcing his wife Formoz and had a reputation for ‘having fun’.
Howayda Rezk said: ‘I was amazed when I saw the news and recognised the name. We have known the family for years, we met in 2000 but then lost touch when Faraj and his wife Formoz divorced.
‘She was so upset, she was in tears and she brought up the three boys on her own really as Faraj moved to France. When she found out he had married again there were more tears from Formoz but I just can’t believe what happened.
‘The three boys were so good growing up, they were all very studious, I know the two younger brothers married doctors. One is a pharmacist, and one is an accountant – we met the family at my husband’s fast food takeaway.
‘Faraj was outside talking Arabic and we got chatting – at the time my husband was in an Egyptian band and was the lead singer.
‘Faraj and his wife would come to parties with us and he was always the lively one, dancing and having fun – I think he had an eye for the women.
Following the incident, armed officers later reportedly arrested two men in a street just feet away from the deadly knife attack in Manchester (pictured is a man being detained by police)
‘But he was very well educated, he studied medicine in Syria and then came to England to carry on his studies and the family followed.
‘The family was very open minded, when we knew them and they were not religious at all, maybe something has cracked in Jihad’s mind.
‘They never went to the mosque when we knew them but after the divorce we lost touch and we haven’t seen them since.’
Neighbours of the Al-Shamie family in Langley Crescent, Prestwich, suggested they had lived there for more than 20 years
Geoff Halliwell, 72, who cleaned the family’s windows said one brother of Jihad had moved out and was thought to have been living at White House Avenue, Crumpsall, not far from the Heaton Park synagogue
He said: ‘They moved in 20 years ago and they were always nice people. He was a smashing lad to talk to, and so was the other and she was a nice lady’.
Mr Halliwell said father of the family moved out around ten years ago and appeared to have been living in France, as he visited the house in a car with French numberplates.
He added that Jihad was the eldest and had a ‘wife and kid but she moved out some time ago’, and he had last seen them around six months ago.
Speaking of the attack, Mr Halliwell said: ‘It has left everyone shocked, amazed, stunned… I am just as shocked as everyone else, it came out of the blue.’
Another neighbour said she used to see Jihad lifting weights in the garden at the side of the house and helping his mother in with the shopping.
She said: ‘I know most people around here but I don’t really know them. He had a little baby and a wife but I haven’t seen them for some time.
‘Sometimes he would be in traditional dress – a gown to the floor and a prayer cap, sometimes in pyjamas and flip flops, and sometimes in jeans and he drove a small black car.’
She described how she had looked out of her window on Thursday afternoon to see around 20 armed police officers.
The neighbour said: ‘They didn’t go in straight away and then someone came with a chainsaw and there was a drone overhead. I didn’t see them bring anyone out.
Police presence at a property in Langley Crescent, Prestwich, in connection with the terror attack in which two people died at the Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester
‘This is a diverse community and everyone gets on – all faiths, LGBT, old and young – and that matters to us.’
Kate McLeish, 38, said Al-Shamie seemed to have become a ‘bit of a loner’ and she overheard him arguing and swearing at a woman on the phone in his car.
His car was ‘bashed up’ and he would go to the supermarket in his pyjamas and flipflops, or wear a tracksuit and prayer cap, she said.
She added: ‘They are probably the only neighbours I don’t really know well. He didn’t come across as a friendly guy.
‘One time he was on the speaker phone in his car and talking to a woman I think. I don’t know what he was talking about but it wasn’t very nice.
‘I just feel really sad, it is awful what has happened. We have a big Jewish community in Prestwich and Manchester and everyone gets on well.
‘It’s a shame someone feels they have to do that. I can’t understand why he would want to hurt people.’
Alyssa Tsa, 46, who lives in the same crescent as the family, said she delivered a present to them at Christmas but was never invited into the house.
When her son helped pick up leaves in the garden, they delivered chocolates in return.
She said: ‘They seem so nice. The mother would say, “Hi, how are you today?” I would see him doing the gardening and exercising in the garden.
‘There was no sign of this horrible thing, he seemed to care for his family and protect them.’
Al-Shamie was shot dead by armed police after he ran his black Kia Picanto hatchback into crowds of Jewish worshippers outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester at 9.31am yesterday before he started stabbing people.
Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both members of Manchester’s Jewish community, died in the attack.
One of them was mistakenly shot dead by police when Al-Shamie was gunned down outside the synagogue. It is believed the victim was behind the door inside the synagogue, trying to prevent Al-Shamie from entering when he was killed by a stray police bullet or bullets.
Another man who was also behind the door suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries when hit by police gunfire.
Al-Shamie had not been referred to the Government’s anti-terror programme Prevent or was known to police or the security services, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed this morning.
Al-Shamie lived in a council house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Langley Crescent, Prestwich in North Manchester with his mother and one of his two brothers, after splitting up with the mother of his child
Police officers were at the property carrying out searches on Friday, with neighbours telling the Mail they often saw the attacker working out in the garden
The scene outside the Heaton Park Synagogue, pictured early on Friday morning, as a police investigation continues into the attack
A picture has emerged of the terrorist as a reclusive weightlifter who was living with his mother after splitting up from his wife and would work out in the garden, neighbours said.
Al-Shamie was living in a council house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Langley Crescent, Prestwich in North Manchester with his mother and one of his two brothers, after splitting up with the mother of his child.
At the time of the incident, it was feared he had an explosive suicide belt on. However, this device later proved to be ‘non-viable’.
Greater Manchester Police, whose armed officers were scrambled to the scene, said in a statement today that one of those killed and one of the injured also suffered bullet wounds from armed officers.
As well as descending on the quiet street in Prestwich, armed police officers also attended a property just a quarter of a mile from the synagogue on Thursday.
Two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s have been arrested on suspicion of planning acts of terrorism, Greater Manchester Police said.
Al Shamie’s relatives took to social media this morning to share a statement in which they condemned his ‘heinous’ act.
The family said: ‘The news from Manchester regarding the terrorist attack targeting a Jewish synagogue has been a profound shock to us.
Forensic officers work at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on Friday
Worshippers are seen peering out from the synagogue’s windows moments before Al-Shamie, pictured wearing a mock suicide belt, was shot dead by police
‘The Al-Shamie family in the UK and abroad strongly condemns this heinous act, which targeted peaceful, innocent civilians.
‘We fully distance ourselves from this attack and express our deep shock and sorrow over what has happened. Our hearts and thoughts are with the victims and their families, and we pray for their strength and comfort.
‘We kindly request that all media outlets respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time and refrain from using this tragic event in any context that does not reflect the truth.
‘May God have mercy on the innocent victims, and we pray for the swift recovery of the injured.’
The statement was signed by Faraj Al-Shamie, on behalf of the Al-Shamie Family.
This morning Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson admitted that one of the men who died and another who was injured suffered gunshot wounds from armed police during the incident.
It is reported that a bullet grazed one man’s leg before hitting Mr Daubly in the stomach, who sadly died.
The men, along with the synagogue’s Rabbi Daniel Walker, had been standing inches from the attacker after they barricaded the doors to prevent him gaining access.
Rabbi Daniel Walker (pictured right) leapt into action after the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue came under attack this morning
A bomb disposal expert from the British Army’s 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment is seen investigating the device worn by the terrorist
A forensic technician gathers evidence at the scene following the stabbing and car attack
Police officers gather inside a cordon on Friday morning after yesterday’s terror attack killed two members of the Jewish community
Chief Watson said: ‘Following the terrorist incident yesterday at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, Middleton Road, Crumpsall; further and urgent enquiries continue. Overnight, we have taken advice from the Home Office Pathologist ahead of full post mortem examinations scheduled for later today.
‘The Home Office Pathologist has advised that he has provisionally determined, that one of the deceased victims would appear to have suffered a wound consistent with a gunshot injury.
‘It is currently believed that the suspect, Jihad Al-Shamie, was not in possession of a firearm and the only shots fired were from GMP’s Authorised Firearms Officers as they worked to prevent the offender from entering the synagogue and causing further harm to our Jewish community.
‘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.
‘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.
‘It is believed that both victims were close together behind the synagogue door, as worshippers acted bravely to prevent the attacker from gaining entry.’
One of those who died, Mr Cravitz, was close friends with Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue Rabbi, Daniel Walker.
He leaves behind his wife Karen, whom he married in August 2009. In a tender family album picture shared online the couple are seen clinking glasses of whisky together on their wedding day.
Mr Cravitz had previously survived two heart operations and had no children of his own, but was seen as an uncle figure to his wife’s children from her previous marriage.
The terrorist was shot dead by police following the attack outside a synagogue in Manchester (pictured is a member of the Army’s bomb disposal team checking the attacker)
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Lady Victoria Starmer speak with a member of the Jewish community at the scene of yesterday’s terror attack
Rabbi Daniel Walker is seen at a vigil for the victims of yesterday’s attack in Crumpsall, Manchester today
People attend a vigil on Middleton Road in Crumpsall, Manchester, after two people died in a terror attack at the Hebrew Congregation synagogue
Tributes are pouring in for both victims today after the tragedy. Two friends of Melvin Cravitz described him as ‘very beloved’, adding he ‘always’ smiled.
Muhammad Azam, 35, told the Mail the 66-year-old ‘never looked at the colour of people’s skin’ and ‘everyone loved him.’
The former supermarket worker, who lived four minutes’ walk from the Heaton Park Synagogue, was murdered by would-be suicide attacker Jihad Al Shamine, 35, as he arrived for prayers yesterday morning.
But cousin Phil Bentley said Mr Cravitz normally attended Yom Kippur prayers much later in the day and he was at a loss to explain why he was there so early.
Mr Bentley, who lives in a flat next door to the synagogue, said he heard ‘two pops’ just after 9.30am and went outside to see police everywhere.
‘I went out of the flats but had to go straight back in, police were there shouting, ‘get back, get back,’ he said.
‘Melvin was my cousin. He was a lovely guy, a quiet man, a gentle giant.
‘I’ve no idea why he was there at the synagogue that early, he’s never there that early.’
Mr Cravitz grew up in north Manchester and attended Plant Hill Secondary School in Blackley. He married his wife, Karen, around 15 years ago, and treated her three children and grandchildren like his own.
The couple moved into Mr Cravitz’s mother Phyllis’ home, on Ardern Road, which is 350 yards from the synagogue, when she died, aged 89, six years ago.
He was very well known in the Jewish community, and previously worked in a series a jobs, including as a driver and in a kosher supermarket. Although he retired around three years ago, he still helped out in the local food bank.
Mr Cravitz’s former boss, David Salzman, said he ‘had a heart of gold.’
‘He was always helping customers, especially anybody vulnerable or elderly,’ Mr Salzman said. ‘He always went the extra mile.’
Mr Azam, 35, who lives next door but one to Mr Cravitz, added: ‘He was a very good man, we can’t believe what’s happened.
‘He was the jolly man in charge of our street. He was the type that if it started raining he would knock on your door to tell you to get your washing in.
‘He never saw or cared about anyone’s colour. Our children loved him. You would always see him in the street wearing his vest.
‘He was very bubbly. Everyone liked him.’
The Pakistani security guard: ‘He was a very lovely neighbour. We were devastated when we found out he was a victim.
‘He never saw us as Pakistani, he wasn’t like that.’
Mr Daulby’s family said they were ‘heartbroken’ at his loss, and asked for privacy.
A short statement shared on his Facebook page read: ‘As Adrian’s family, we are heartbroken by his passing.
‘We kindly ask for privacy at this time as we grieve and seek the answers we need. Thank you for your understanding and respect.’
His family released a statement on Friday paying tribute to his final act of courage.
They said: ‘Adrian Daulby was a hero and tragically lost his life in the act of courage to save others, he was a beloved brother, loving uncle to his four nieces and one nephew and a cherished cousin.
‘The family is shocked by the tragic, sudden death of such a lovely down to earth man.
‘His final act was one of profound courage and he will forever be remembered for his heroic act on Thursday 2 October 2025.’
Mr Daulby lived on his own after losing both his parents to cancer, and was battling the disease himself, a neighbour told the Daily Mail.
As a result of his ill-health, the nature lover had debated whether to go for Yom Kippur, Hussain Shahzad said.
The 27-year-old biomedical scientist fought back tears as he told how his neighbour, who lived alone following the death of his parents, spent his time enjoying the nature in the garden of his semi-detached home.
Mr Shahzad added: ‘He loved animals. He had a YouTube channel where he uploaded videos of the birds and wildlife. He would film my chickens.
‘He had not been so well lately and when I spoke to him on Tuesday he said he wasn’t going to fast on Yom Kippur. He was thinking about whether he would go to the synagogue or not for this reason.
‘I didn’t see him go yesterday but he would usually wear his best suit when he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath.’
In a vigil for the victims of the attack today, Rabbi Daniel Walker, from the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, paid thanks to ‘one of the heroes’ who is recovering in hospital from ‘terrible wounds’.
Speaking on Middleton Road near the police cordon, he told the crowd: ‘I’m joined here by many dignitaries for whose presence we are very, very grateful, but I just want to introduce you, first of all, to the young people who are standing here with me.’
He addressed the ‘youngest kids’ of ‘one of the people, one of the heroes, of the Heaton Park Shul community, who is today in hospital recovering from terrible wounds.’
The rabbi added that he is recovering alongside two men who ‘blocked the terrorist’ with their bodies.
‘So I want to begin with prayers for them, as is traditional’, he said, before leading a prayer in Hebrew.
