Arsenal jihadi ‘euphoric’ hours before atrocity
Killer could not contain his excitement in conversation with his neighbour
THE jihadi in an Arsenal shirt was ‘euphoric’ and asking about how to hire a van just hours before the London Bridge atrocity, it was claimed last night.
He could not contain his excitement during a conversation with a neighbour on Saturday afternoon. The neighbour said he wandered over and asked about his van and how much it would cost to hire one.
Hours later, the father of two went on a bloody rampage with two twisted extremists which left seven people dead and scores more injured. The three terrorists were shot dead by police.
After police raided a flat in Barking, east London, at 7am yesterday, it emerged that the jihadi:
Appeared on a Channel 4 documentary last year about jihadis in Britain and had links to two notorious Islamic preachers;
Had previously tried to go to Syria to fight jihad but had been talked out of it by his family;
Was in an arranged marriage and only recently become a father for the second time;
Had been thrown out of a local mosque after he repeatedly interrupted the imam during prayers;
It was claimed he had been reported to the anti-terrorist hotline, but had not been arrested or stripped of his passport.
Iketina Chigbo, who lives in the block of flats raided in Barking, said he saw the Arsenal-supporting jihadi just a few hours before the terror attack.
He said: ‘It was around 3pm and I was in the process of moving, so was loading stuff into a van. ‘He came over and seemed quite excitable. He was wearing his Arsenal shirt and was asking about the van.‘He was asking where I got the van from and how much it cost.
‘He said he was planning to move too and that’s why he wanted to know – I didn’t think anything of it. He was on another level of happiness and kept shaking my hand. He seemed almost euphoric.
‘But then I saw the picture from the scene of the attack of the guy on the floor – he was wearing the same kind of colour top and I just couldn’t believe it. I knew it was him, I recognised him.’
He added: ‘I’ve known him almost three years and we’ve had general chit-chat. We never had any suspicions, he seemed like a nice guy.’
Another neighbour said he knew the man previously worked for KFC and more recently for Transport for London. He said: ‘He seemed like a normal guy but then he became quite radical. I saw him on a TV documentary with an Isis flag some time ago and after that I tried to keep my distance from him.’
Another neighbour said: ‘He was a nice guy, obviously religious but normal. We used to speak about Arsenal and I last chatted to him a few weeks ago after we won the FA Cup. There was nothing untoward about him.’ A female neighbour said: ‘He didn’t interact with women in the area because of his views. He would happily talk to men but would ignore females.
‘I only ever saw his wife if he was with her and she wore the full veil – I don’t think I ever saw her eyes. A relative of his wife said he had been concerned about the jihadi’s views and tried to raise the alarm with the family. In 2015, I heard he tried to go to Syria, saying he was going for jihad. But the family rallied and as his wife was pregnant they managed to stop him.’