Manchester synagogue victim died from police gunshot: inquest
A note is left with floral tributes near the Manchester synagogue, where multiple people were killed on Yom Kippur, in what police have declared a terrorist incident, in north Manchester, Britain, October 4, 2025 (Photo: REUTERS/Hannah McKay)
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LONDON: One of the two men killed in a Manchester synagogue attack earlier this month died from a gunshot fired by a police officer, a UK inquest heard on Wednesday (Oct 29).
Adrian Daulby, 53, died from the single gunshot wound to the chest, while the other victim, Melvin Cravitz, 66, died from multiple knife wounds inflicted by the attacker, police told the Manchester Coroner's Court.
Daulby was described at the hearing as a "quiet hero" who leaped from his seat to block the doors of Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue when the attacker, Syrian-born UK citizen Jihad al-Shamie, tried to storm the building on October 2.
Greater Manchester Police Chief Superintendent Lewis Hughes told the court Daulby was hit in the chest while behind the door when the armed officer responding to the situation fired several rounds.
Shamie had started his attack by driving his Kia Picanto at security staff and the external gates of the synagogue, where worshippers were gathering for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Wearing a fake suicide belt, he then stabbed father-of-three Cravitz and tried to storm the synagogue before being shot dead by police, Hughes recounted.
"The offender exited the vehicle armed with a knife and immediately made stabbing motions to Mr Cravitz's upper torso, head, and neck area," he told the court.
Hughes said interior ministry post-mortems had determined the preliminary causes of death for both Cravitz and Daulby following the attack.
Judge Alexia Durran, the chief coroner of England and Wales, said they were her provisional findings as she opened and then adjourned the inquests into the men's deaths until early next year.
An inquest into Shamie's death will be held separately and is due to open on Friday.
Coroner's inquests are held in England and Wales to try to establish the causes and circumstances of sudden or unexplained deaths.
They do not determine criminal or civil liability, but set out facts in the public interest.
