The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
‘I will die fighting for God’
Inquest told chilling details of attacker’s calls to his children
Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood told his children he was “going to die fighting for God” in the weeks leading up to the atrocity.
The inquest into his victims’ deaths heard that during video calls to his younger children, who were living in east London while he stayed in Birmingham, he told them about dreams he had been having.
Detective Chief Inspector Dan Brown told the Old Bailey: “He told them that he was going to die fighting for God.”
In the days before he ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and stabbed Constable Keith Palmer on March 22 last year, he also searched for Birmingham Calor Gas Centre.
Mr Brown accepted it was “at least possible” that he had planned to use gas as a weapon.
The inquest heard Masood drove from Birmingham to Wales to visit his mother, Janet Ajao, and stepfather on March 16 after picking up the vehicle he used to carry out the attack.
Mr Brown said investigators “believe this to be what we now realise was a goodbye visit”.
The detective added: “As he was leaving the house on March 17 he turned over his shoulder and said, ‘they will say I’m a terrorist. I’m not”.’
Earlier, the court heard how his mother feared he would kill someone while he was still a teenager.
His failed relationships, violent criminal past, and conversion to Islam during the first of two spells in prison were laid bare in court.
Masood, 52, was shot dead by police after stabbing Constable Palmer, 48, and ploughing his rented 4x4 into Kurt Cochran, 54, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, on Westminster Bridge, causing fatal injuries.
The Old Bailey heard he believed his Muslim faith was reinforced by a number of “miracles in his life”.
Jonathan Hough QC described a “number of incidents of significant violence escalating in seriousness and apparently becoming more regular”. for armed officers at Carriage Gates, where Constable Palmer, 48, was on duty, had been replaced with roving patrols.
Two authorised firearms officers (AFOs) on duty on March 22 have said they had never seen instructions issued in 2015, which said they should focus on the gates when they were open.
Constables Lee Ashby and Nicholas Sanders said they believed they were required to patrol a wider area in New Palace Yard.
Susannah Stevens, representing Constable Palmer’s family, said she was asking questions because no firearms expert has been called to give evidence at the inquest.
“All the family want is to have an opportunity to put questions to see whether or not the failures in the system would have made a difference,” she added.
The inquests continue.