Troubled loner facing mounting debts and marriage collapse carried out fatal rampage
The man who killed a Jewish worshipper during a synagogue attack was on bail for alleged rape when he launched his deadly assault, authorities revealed yesterday.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was under investigation by Greater Manchester Police for a sexual attack that occurred earlier this year and was scheduled to appear in court. The unemployed attacker was also struggling with significant financial problems and a broken marriage, with his wife having left their home with their one-year-old son six months prior.
From Cheerful Child to Violent Extremist
Neighbors described Al-Shamie as a reclusive figure who spent his days in pajamas, working out with weights in his garden and irritating residents by parking his damaged Kia carelessly. He was shot dead by armed police on Thursday following his rampage at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue, where he seriously injured multiple worshippers.
The Syrian-born attacker grew up in the same Manchester community he would later terrorize, arriving in Britain as a four-year-old child. Home videos posted online show a dramatically different picture—a beaming eight-year-old playing in the garden with his two younger brothers, visiting the Trafford Centre shopping mall, and singing Christmas carols at his school nativity play.
His father, Faraj Al-Shamie, was a trauma surgeon who worked for non-governmental organizations in war zones and at North Manchester General Hospital. The family initially lived less than a mile from the synagogue attack site.
Divergent Paths
While Al-Shamie’s two brothers became successful professionals—one a pharmacist, the other a software engineer—he struggled to establish himself. He worked briefly in customer service and as a self-employed tutor teaching English and computer programming for £12 hourly, but neighbors reported he hadn’t appeared to work in recent years.
Financial records show Al-Shamie was subject to a debt relief order from last September, indicating he had savings and valuable items worth less than £2,000 and couldn’t repay his debts.
Following his parents’ divorce, his father relocated to France and remarried, leaving his mother Formoz to raise the three boys alone in a council house in Prestwich.
Warning Signs Missed
Although Al-Shamie had minor criminal convictions, he wasn’t known to counter-terror agencies. However, police are investigating whether he sent a death threat to former Conservative MP John Howell in 2012, following his support for Israel. The email from someone identifying as “Jihad Alshamie” stated: “It is people like you who deserve to die.”
Mr. Howell, who served as MP for Henley until 2024, said police didn’t take the threat seriously at the time.
Neighbors described increasingly troubling behavior. Kate McLeish, 38, called him “a bit of a loner” who she overheard arguing and swearing at a woman over the phone. Another resident noted he switched between Western clothing and Islamic dress but kept to himself.
Window cleaner Geoff Halliwell, 72, who knew the family for 20 years, expressed shock: “He was a smashing lad to talk to. It has left everyone stunned—it came completely out of the blue.”
The killer wore a fake bomb belt during his blood-soaked attack, a far cry from the wide-eyed child captured in family videos decades earlier.
