This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/world/europe/uk-khalid-masood-london-attack.html

The article has changed 10 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 7 Version 8
In London Attack Inquiry, Police Make ‘Significant’ Arrests The London Attacker: Quiet and Friendly, but With a Dark Side
(about 11 hours later)
LONDON — The police on Friday announced two “significant” arrests in connection with the attack outside the British Parliament this week, as they sought to unravel the murky past of the 52-year-old assailant, who they said was born Adrian Russell Ajao. BIRMINGHAM, England — He described himself as “friendly and approachable.” He had a degree in economics, and said he was a good listener.
Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said that nine people were in custody and being questioned as part of the investigation into the assailant, who was identified on Thursday by another name he used, Khalid Masood. Adrian Russell Ajao, the man who drove a car into pedestrians in the shadow of Big Ben and then killed a police officer with a knife in Britain’s worst act of terrorism since 2005, and who called himself Khalid Masood after converting to Islam in his late 30s, was a 52-year-old husband and father.
Mr. Rowley said the toll of fatalities from the attack had risen to four with the death overnight of Leslie Rhodes, 75, from the Streatham area of South London. The victims included at least 50 wounded and came from around the world, a “pointed reminder” Mr. Rowley said, of the global reach of the assault. Prone to violent outbursts as a younger man, he had led a quiet life in recent years, usually attracting notice from the neighbors only when he washed his car in the driveway or mowed his lawn. Most afternoons he would pick up his two youngest children from primary school in a quiet suburban part of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England.
As a portrait began to emerge of Mr. Masood as a man who fluctuated between violence and a seemingly prosaic family life, Mr. Rowley said the police were focusing on several questions regarding the assailant, who had never been convicted of terrorism: What led him to be radicalized? Had he acted alone? Did he receive direction from a source at home or overseas? Occasionally, though, a darker side broke through. “When he spoke about religion,” said a neighbor who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, “he suddenly was a different man,” describing in those moments a fierce and uncompromising anger about the treatment of Muslims.
On Thursday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, but the extent of the militant group’s connections to the assailant were unclear. Mr. Masood, who was widely identified in British news reports late Thursday by another name, Adrian Elms, threw the heart of the capital into chaos on Wednesday when he drove a sport utility vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and then killed a police officer with a knife outside the Parliament complex. As a portrait began to emerge of Mr. Masood, investigators were trying to piece together how a former English teacher with a penchant for bodybuilding — who had used half a dozen aliases, spent two years living in Saudi Arabia and served two jail sentences — had been set on the path of extremism, and whether he acted alone.
Mr. Rowley emphasized that there was no evidence of further security threats, adding that the counterterrorism operation was large and moving quickly, with hundreds of officers mobilized. On Friday, the police provided some hints that answers would be forthcoming, announcing two “significant” arrests. But by the end of the day, seven of the 11 people arrested since Wednesday had been released with no further police action. Two women have been freed on bail. Two men, both from Birmingham, remained in custody and were being questioned as part of the investigation.
The police were searching five addresses, had concluded 16 searches and were sifting through 2,700 seized items, including huge amounts of computer data, and video footage taken by passers-by on Westminster Bridge at the time of the attack, Mr. Rowley said. The police were still searching five addresses, had concluded 16 searches and were sifting through 2,700 seized items, including huge amounts of computer data and video footage taken by passers-by on Westminster Bridge at the time of the attack, said Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
One person was arrested overnight in the West Midlands region of England, where several people had been detained earlier, and a second was taken into custody in the northwest of the country, he said. Another individual was released. Mr. Rowley said the death toll from the attack had risen to four as Leslie Rhodes, 75, from the Streatham area of south London, succumbed to his injuries. The victims included at least 50 wounded and came from around the world, a “poignant reminder” Mr. Rowley said, of the global reach of the assault.
The authorities had held off releasing information about Mr. Masood, and Mr. Rowley thanked the news organizations that had delayed publishing details about the assailant in order to give investigators more time to pursue leads. Only minutes before Mr. Massod pressed down on the accelerator at 2:41 p.m. on Wednesday as he mounted the sidewalk on Westminster Bridge, his WhatsApp account on his phone was active, security officials said. Whether he was receiving direction from someone at home or overseas, or just saying goodbye to his wife, is not yet known.
At first glance, the police said, Mr. Masood, who was born on Dec. 25, 1964, in the Kent area of southeastern England, appeared to share several characteristics with recent Islamist radicals who staged attacks in Berlin and in Nice, France, using vehicles to mow people down. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday, but the extent of the group’s connections to the assailant were unclear, and some officials doubted a link. “They adopted him, he was not one of their soldiers,” said Nazir Afzal, until 2015 the chief prosecutor for northwest England, who grew up in Birmingham. Mr. Masood does not appear to have made a public pledge of allegiance to Islamists before or during his attack.
But they also pointed to striking differences, including his age and profile: He was 52, married, and known to his neighbors as a quiet man who often mowed the lawn. In some respects, Mr. Masood, born on Dec. 25, 1964, in Kent, southeastern England, shared many traits with the militant Islamists who have staged attacks recently in European cities.
In an interview with Sky News, Sabeur Toumi, who was identified as the owner of the Preston Park Hotel in Brighton, said that Mr. Masood had spent his final night at the establishment, staying in room 228. Mr. Toumi described Mr. Masood as a returning guest who was “very friendly, laughing and joking.” Like those in Berlin and Nice, France, last year, he used a vehicle to mow people down. And he had a substantial criminal record before his transition to Islamic militancy: First convicted as an 18-year-old for criminal damage, he went to prison twice for inflicting grievous bodily harm.
“My staff is very upset at the moment,” Mr. Toumi said, adding that it was difficult these days to distinguish between “the bad ones and the good ones.” He appears to exemplify another trend as well. According to statistics cited by Mr. Afzal, one-third of those convicted of Islamist-related offenses in Britain from 2001 to 2010 were converts to Islam, who account for only 1 percent of the Muslim community.
At different times in his life, Mr. Masood had been both. In 2000, a judge sentenced him, then 35 and known as Adrian Elms, to nearly three years in prison after he slashed a cafe owner in the face. But in other ways, his profile is highly unusual, officials said, not least with regards to his age.
According to local reports at the time, Mr. Masood, who was living in Northiam, a village in southeastern England, left his victim, Piers Mott, with a three-inch gash on his left cheek that required 20 stitches. Mr. Masood was black, and during the trial at Hove Crown Court, the argument was characterized as racially tinged. “Most people we prosecute are second-generation British immigrants and they are young,” Mr. Afzal said. “I can’t think of anyone in their 40s, never mind their 50s.”
A report in The Argus, a local paper based in the nearby city of Brighton, said that after a fight with Mr. Mott at a bar one Sunday afternoon, Mr. Masood lost his temper and slashed the seats of Mr. Mott’s car. “Then again,” he added, “he came to his version of Islam late.”
When Mr. Mott arrived, Mr. Masood cut the cafe owner’s face with a knife that he had been using in the course of decorating his daughter’s bedroom. Blood gushed from Mr. Mott’s face, and he was hospitalized. In the Birmingham neighborhood where Mr. Masood lived with his family until last December, Marjoli Gajecka, 26, described a quiet and outwardly observant Muslim who wore a beard, a skullcap and mostly cream-colored Islamic robes. His wife, also in a robe, and his two daughters wore head scarves.
Prosecutors told the court that Mr. Masood had four pints of beer before that attack, and had waved his knife and shouted abuse during the assault. “He was a very calm person, a family person, I think a good father as he was taking kids to school, bringing them back, coming back from shopping with his wife,” said Ms. Gajecka, whose mother lives two doors down from the Masoods’ former home.
His defense lawyer, Alexander Taylor-Camara, told the court that Mr. Masood had become an outcast in the community in East Sussex after the brawl. He was helpful, too, she said. When her mother’s partner needed a parking space, Mr. Masood offered his driveway. Another time, when another neighbor needed a ride, he gave her one.
“When the defendant moved to the area, it was to try and give his family and himself a better and more tranquil way of life,” Mr. Taylor-Camara was quoted by The Argus as saying. “The majority of people seemed to get on well with them, but there was a problem with this man. Things got out of hand on this particular day.” Investigators are working on the assumption that Mr. Masood converted to Islam in one of Britain’s prisons, some of them known as incubators of radical Islam, particularly during the years he was incarcerated. He first landed in prison in 2000, after a judge sentenced him, then 35 and known as Adrian Elms, to nearly three years for slashing a cafe owner’s face after an argument.
The lawyer added at the time: “His wife and family have now become ostracized in the village. He will effectively have to move his family from the village and start to live his life all over again.” At the time, Mr. Masood, who is mixed race, was living in Northiam, a village in southeast England. He was known to take a drink, and displayed no outward signs of piety. He left his victim, Piers Mott, with a three-inch gash on his left cheek that required 20 stitches. News reports during the trial at Hove Crown Court said the argument between the two men was racially tinged.
The judge sentenced Mr. Masood to two years in prison for wounding Mr. Mott and to nine months for criminal damage. During the sentencing, he acknowledged that Mr. Masood had tried to better himself by obtaining a university degree and creating a successful business, but said he had no option but to impose jail terms. Prosecutors told the court that Mr. Masood had drunk four pints of beer before the attack and had waved his knife and shouted abuse during the assault.
The judge sentenced Mr. Masood to two years in prison for wounding and nine months for criminal damage. During the sentencing, he acknowledged that Mr. Masood had tried to better himself by obtaining a university degree and creating a successful business, but said he had no option but to impose the jail terms.
“The reality is that you lost your temper and went beyond the bounds of what is reasonable,” the judge said.“The reality is that you lost your temper and went beyond the bounds of what is reasonable,” the judge said.
On Friday, Mr. Rowley, the assistant commissioner, reiterated comments from Prime Minister Theresa May, saying that the authorities had viewed Mr. Masood as a “peripheral figure” and that he had not been part of the general intelligence picture. Mr. Masood never seemed to recover from the crime and its aftermath, which eventually fractured his family and made him an outcast in his old neighborhood, according to reports in the news media. Less than three years later he was back in jail after a second violent episode, in which he stabbed a man in the nose.
In Britain, MI5, the domestic security service, has more than 3,000 subjects of interest and only the most serious cases are closely monitored as potential terrorist threats. News reports said that Mr. Masood had not been one of those subjects. It was during this second stint, in Wayland prison in the Norfolk area in eastern England, a larger jail with a substantial Muslim population, that investigators believe he converted to Islam. He might have come into contact with Islamists there, but the picture remains hazy.
Mr. Rowley emphasized several times that the police were appealing to the public for information about Mr. Masood, saying officers wanted to shed more light on his past and on his associates. “We don’t yet know how he became radicalized and who radicalized him, even though we are working on the assumption that he converted to Islam in prison,” Mr. Afzal said.
Some lawmakers called for stronger security outside the Houses of Parliament, considering that the lightly armed attacker had managed to penetrate the perimeter of the complex, pass through a main gateway and kill a police officer. Mr. Rowley said that the police were reviewing measures to balance safety concerns with the desire to maintain access to the center of Britain’s democracy. In 2004, shortly after being released from his second stint in prison, Mr. Masood remarried a Muslim woman — identified in the British news media as Farzana Malik. Between 2005 and 2009, he had two one-year stints teaching English in Jidda, Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi Embassy in London, he visited again in March 2015 for the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mr. Rowley said that the number of armed officers in London would be nearly doubled, and that the police presence would also be significantly increased elsewhere in the country. The run-ins with law enforcement stopped, though he was questioned at some point by MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service. But he was considered “peripheral” to a larger investigation and soon fell off the radar, officials said.
The tabloid The Sun published video footage of the moment Mrs. May was rushed from the building, and said it showed the prime minister briefly losing her bearings and walking the wrong way as her security detail guided her. So far investigators do not know what triggered this week’s attacks, executed on the first anniversary of the Brussels bombings last year. Some believe it is unlikely that Mr. Masood acted entirely on his own.
There is a growing debate about the role of social media companies in disseminating material that could be used for radicalization, with the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, arguing that more could be done by internet service providers and online platforms to prevent the spread of such material. “There is no such thing as a lone wolf,” said Khalid Mahmood, who represents one constituency in Birmingham in Parliament. “Maybe he was a single attacker,” he said, but he must have had “a mentor or a guide,” first to inspire him and then to make him follow through.
Thousands attended a vigil Thursday night in Trafalgar Square, not far from the scene of the attack, and Mr. Rowley said it had sent a message that Britain would not give in to hate and fear. Around Christmas, a moving van arrived outside Mr. Masood’s house. Ms. Gajecka, the neighbor, saw him and his wife pack up and leave.
“The very fact that London has gone back to work today shows they failed,” he said, referring to terrorists’ efforts. While it remains unclear where his wife and children went, Mr. Masood is believed to have moved to a rundown apartment building on Hagley Road that residents say was once a brothel. The street, in central Birmingham, is lined with empty pizza and kebab shops. Drug addicts shoot up in the parking lot.
This, police said, is where Mr. Masood is believed to have stayed as recently as last weekend, before renting a car and driving to the seaside resort of Brighton on Tuesday, the day before the attack, seemingly in good spirits.
Sabeur Toumi, the owner of the Preston Park Hotel there, said that Mr. Masood had spent his final night at the establishment, staying in Room 228. In an interview with Sky News, Mr. Toumi described Mr. Masood as a returning guest who was “very friendly, laughing and joking.”
“My staff is very upset at the moment,” Mr. Toumi added. “It is very shocking because these days you don’t know who are the bad ones and the good ones.”