Usman Khan laid on the floor for ten minutes after being shot before sitting up, declaring “no, Allah hu Akbar!” and being shot several more times until the terrorist stopped moving, an inquest has heard.
The jury of the inquest into Khan’s death heard on Tuesday how the events surrounding the Islamist’s death had unfolded.
Some time after he had shouted, “I have a bomb”, he was shot by armed police twice at close range, according to Sky News, before he hit the ground and was ordered to remain still.
But ten minutes later, he attempted to rise, shouted “no, Allah hu Akbar!” (“My god is greater [than yours]”) and was pelted with the second volley of at least nine bullets.
A single shot followed, and then at least four others, the inquest at the City of London’s Guildhall heard. In total, Khan was shot at 20 times. Khan had been wearing a fake suicide vest at the time he was dispatched.
Six officers were involved in neutralising the terrorist, some 15 minutes after Khan had gone on a stabbing spree, killing Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones, two young Cambridge University graduates facilitating a deradicalisation programme the convicted terrorist was attending.
The inquest had earlier heard that 28-year-old Khan, who had served eight years in prison for planning to set up a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, had travelled from Staffordshire on his own to London to attend the Learning Together session at Fishmongers Hall, London Bridge, on November 29th, 2019, just 11 months after his release.
During the event, Khan hid in a toilet cubicle and taped two knives to his wrists, each etched with the word “Allah” on the blade in Arabic. He then went on to stab 25-year-old Merritt by the urinals, leaving the toilet and stabbing Miss Jones, 23, in the neck.
Khan then stabbed three others who survived the attack: two other young women, Stephanie Szczotko, 26, and Isobel Rowbotham, 23, who worked for Learning Together; and Fishmongers Hall chef Lukasz Koczocik, 40, who charged at Khan with a pike. All three survived.
Three others attending the session — including one former prisoner and one still serving his sentence — then chased Khan out of the hall, all three men fighting to bring Khan to the ground armed only with a fire extinguisher, a narwhal tusk, and their bare hands.
Last week a separate inquest concluded that the police, MI5, and the probation services had failed in their monitoring of Khan and that those failings contributed to the deaths of Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones. Some of the failures included agencies not sharing information, allowing Khan to travel to London by himself, and not conducting risk or psychological assessments.
One former offender involved in taking down Khan said that authorities have “blood on their hands”. John Crilly, who smashed a chair over Khan’s back and chased him outside with a fire extinguisher, told Sky News last week that those responsible should resign.
“I’m never going to be able to process, reading them transcripts, the amount of times they’ve dropped the ball,” Mr Crilly said.
Continuing: “MI5 knew this guy was dangerous. Cat-A high risk, you can’t get any higher than that.
“All the intelligence was there, he was still at it. They’ve all got blood on their hands. And I will never be able to process it. Every one of them, they should all resign today.”
Gareth Evans, another reformed offender, had stayed behind to help tend to the injured, comforting Miss Evans before she died. He told the broadcaster: “She sort of fell into my arms at the bottom of the stairs. I think I sort of knew she was in trouble and so I just tried to talk to her and make sure she felt okay.
“I tried to do more. I hope it made some difference to her.”
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