The second Muslim convert
who allegedly executed Lee Rigby in Woolwich has been identified as Michael
Adebowale, a probation officer's son radicalised as a teenager, it emerged
today. The 22-year-old British citizen of Nigerian descent and Michael
Adebolajo, 28, ran the soldier down with their car before 'hacking, chopping
and cutting' at his body like 'crazed animals' screaming 'Allah Akbar!’ –
an Islamic phrase meaning ‘God is great’, witnesses said. With Rigby's body
left in the street Adebolajo ranted on film: 'You people will
never be safe' before the pair waited 14 minutes for armed police to
arrive and were gunned down waving firearms, knives and a machete.Both have
been been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in hospital in a stable
condition with Scotland Yard waiting to interview them.
Today a friend who has
known Adebowale since he was 11 says the man he saw on television
holding a knife and covered in blood 'was not the same person' he grew up with.
The man, who chose to remain anonymous, said on ITV's Daybreak he remembered
Adebowale converting to Islam at around 19, while he was at university. 'That
wasn't the same person. He wasn't someone monstrous, that was not the same person,'
he said. Details
about the 22-year-old are still emerging, but it is understood he and his
girlfriend, a fellow convert, were well known in south-east London for handing
out extremist leaflets.
Adebowale was also known to
be among the 3,000 Muslim extremists in Britain being watched by MI5 and is
believed to have been radicalised while studying at university. According to
his friend, who has known Adebowale since he was 11-years-old, Adebowale became
a Muslim in his late teens. 'He converted to Islam, preaching Islam, preaching peace,'
he said. 'Not preaching anything
bad or anything negative. Just literally the ways of Islam really.
'I would see him going to
mosque and coming back from mosque. He was completely normal. 'The whole
reform into Islam was a sudden change though. It suited him though. 'It
looked like he was doing well. He was a new person. 'He was one of us at
school. Nothing evil about him at all. So yeah it was a big shock to us. A big
shock.'
Drummer Rigby was hacked
to death by two attackers in Woolwich, south-east London on Wednesday at
2.20pm. Michael Adebolajo, 28, and his alleged accomplice Michael Adebowale are
believed to have run down the off-duty British soldier with a Vauxhall Tigra as
he walked back to the Woolwich Barracks, crushing his body against a road sign.
Witnesses said the terror suspects then 'hacked and chopped' at his body like
'crazed animals', before dragging his corpse into the middle of the road
leaving a trail of blood.
As they apparently tried to
decapitate him they were chanting: 'this is what God would have wanted'. A
blood-soaked man believed to be Adebolajo, who was still holding a number of
weapons in his red-stained hands, then ranted on camera in a clear London
accent. Within 20 minutes armed officers arrived and the fundamentalists
charged at them wielding firearms, knives and a machete.
Police opened fire, taking
the pair down with up to eight bullets. The suspects remain under armed guard
in two separate London hospitals.
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