London killer ‘jovial’ before attack
Police release more details of British terrorist’s life
British police yesterday released a photo and more details of Khalid Masood, as the number of people he killed in a car and knife attack outside parliament rose to five. The motivation for Wednesday’s attack is still unclear, but a hotel manager who met Masood shortly before the attack said he was “jovial”.
By yesterday, police had recovered more than 2,700 pieces of evidence, including “massive amounts of computer data”, and interviewed nearly 3,500 people about Masood’s life and final hours, said Mark Rowley, Scotland Yard’s chief antiterrorism officer.
They have yet to determine whether he had been radicalised, or when. Two more arrests were made on Thursday night, in northwest England and in Birmingham, taking the total to 10.
According to police, Masood, 52, was a black man who was born Adrian Russell Ajao on Christmas Day 1964, and converted to Islam late in his life.
He was a father of three who had a string of criminal convictions for physical violence, possessing offensive weapons and breaches of the public order. He was also known in early life as Adrian Elms.
Masood appears to have been estranged for more than 20 years from his mother and stepfather, Janet and Philip Ajao, who live in Carmarthenshire, West Wales.
He and his family moved often in the past five years, first within London and eventually to Birmingham.
He left his last home in Birmingham at Christmas, and was alone, neighbours said.
British newspaper The Sun, which claimed to have obtained a copy of Masood’s resume, reported that he had spent time in Saudi Arabia in 2005, teaching English.
He had a string of convictions for violent offences and had served time in prison. But Masood’s age, 52, makes him unusual among radicalised would-be perpetrators of terrorist acts.
Masood had stayed in the Preston Park hotel in Brighton, on the south coast of England, on Tuesday night, where the manager, Sabeur Tuomi, remembered him “joking and smiling “and said he “checked out peacefully”.
The next afternoon, Masood ploughed his rented Hyundai SUV into a crowd of pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing three and injuring 50. Then, rushing towards the Houses of Parliament with a knife, he stabbed a policeman fatally before being shot.
A fifth victim, a 75- year- old man named Leslie Rhodes who was on a visit to a hospital nearby, died of his injuries yesterday.
Two more of Masood’s victims remained in critical condition in hospital.
They are still trying to determine whether he acted “totally alone inspired by terrorist propaganda” or whether he was supported or directed by other terrorist individuals or groups.
Steve Hewitt, a historian who specialises in security and counter- terrorism, said that “thanks to the internet and satellite television”, anyone anywhere could be radicalised “as a result of issues that have nothing to do with the home environment”.
Since four British men carried out the attacks that killed 56 people in London in July 2005, British intelligence agencies have maintained “a focus on terrorists who are British as opposed to foreign”, Dr Hewitt said.
Given Britain’s geographic isolation as an island, and that visitors cannot enter the country on Schengen visas, as on mainland Europe, it is difficult for terrorists to arrive in the UK purely to carry out attacks.
Further, a crackdown on firearms and explosives, and intense intelligence scrutiny of such weapons, has made it difficult for terrorists to acquire them.
As a result, terrorists have started to realise – as they did in the lorry attacks in Nice and Berlin last year – that “low-tech terrorism against so-called soft targets is just as effective for the cause and much easier to do”, Dr Hewitt said.
Across the UK, police presence continues to be heightened, with the number of armed officers up by a third.
Mr Rowley appealed directly to the public for more information. “We remain keen to hear from anyone who knew Khalid Masood well, understands who his associates were, and can provide us with information about places he has recently visited,” he said.