One victim in Manchester synagogue attack was killed by police gunfire, probe finds

Manchester police chief says Adrian Daulby, 53, was accidentally shot through the door when armed officer fired several rounds at terrorist Jihad al-Shamie

LONDON, United Kingdom — One of the two men killed in a Manchester synagogue terror attack earlier this month died from a gunshot fired by a police officer, a UK inquest heard on Wednesday.

Adrian Daulby, 53, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, while the other victim, Melvin Cravitz, 66, was killed by 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 worshipers were gathering for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Wearing a fake suicide belt, he then stabbed Cravitz, a father of three, and tried to storm the synagogue before being shot dead by police, Hughes recounted.

(L) Adrian Daulby and (R) Melvin Cravitz, killed October 2, 2025, during a terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, in undated photos. (Greater Manchester Police/Facebook)

“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 autopsies 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 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.