23 May, London: A cub scout leader and mother-of-two has emerged from the attack by suspected Muslim terrorists on Wednesday that left one man dead on the streets of London.
It is Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a woman who got off a bus and tried to reason with the two attackers after she tried to help the man lying on the street.
The 48-year-old is not a trained hostage negotiator but a scout leader who tried to keep talking to the two attackers before police arrived at the scene near the Royal Artillery Barracks in the neighborhood of Woolwich.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Loyau-Kennett said she confronted the attackers, telling them: “It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose.”
Saying she wanted to stop one of the suspects from attacking anyone else, she asked him if he “did it” and what he wanted.
Loyau-Kennett said she saw a crashed car and the victim lying on the street and tried to help him since she had been trained in first aid. She had determined the man was dead by the time the attackers confronted her.
She said “a black guy with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over” and excitedly warned her to stay away from the body.
“I asked him why he had done what had had done,” The Guardian quoted her as saying. “He said he had killed the man because he (the victim) was a British soldier who killed Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was furious about the British Army being over there.”
She told The Daily Telegraph that the suspected terrorist was “in full control of his decisions” and did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
When the man told him he was going to kill police when they arrived, she asked him if that was reasonable and tried to keep him engaged.
Then she spoke to the other attacker, who she described as quiet shy.
“I asked him if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife, but I didn’t want to say that,” she said. “He didn’t agree and I asked him: `Do you want to carry on?’ He said: `No, no, no.’ I didn’t want to upset him,” she is quoted as saying in The Guardian.
Loyau-Kennett said she was not scared and that the armed men did not seem to be drunk or on drugs. She said she was trying to keep them occupied so they didn’t get more agitated.
She re-boarded her bus shortly before police arrived, watching from the bus as police shot the two suspects, who are both receiving treatment in hospital.
“The officers shot them in the legs, I think” she says in The Guardian.
The British government’s emergency committee was set to meet Thursday after Prime Minister David Cameron said there were “strong indications” it was an act of terrorism, and two other officials said there were signs the attack was motivated by radical Islam.
One of the attackers went on video to explain the crime — shouting political statements, gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver. Police shot and wounded the unidentified assailants and took them into custody.
Authorities did not identify the victim by name, but French President Francois Hollande referred to him as a “soldier” at a news conference in Paris with Cameron, who was visiting. Cameron would not confirm that, but British media say the victim was wearing a shirt in support of troops and Britain’s Ministry of Defense said it was investigating whether a U.K. soldier was involved.
Images from the scene showed a blue car that appeared to have been used in the attack, its hood crushed and rammed into a signpost on a sidewalk that was smeared with blood. A number of weapons — including butchers’ knives, a machete and a meat cleaver — were strewn on the street.
Footage — obtained by ITV news and The Sun newspaper — showed a man in a dark jacket and knit cap walking toward a camera, clutching a meat cleaver and a knife. Speaking in English with a British accent, he apologized that women passers-by “have had to witness this” barbarity, saying that “in our land our women have to see the same.”
He gave no indication what that land was as he urged people to tell the government to “bring our troops back.” British troops are deployed in Afghanistan and recently supported the French-led intervention in Mali.
“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you,” the man declared. “We must fight them as they fight us.” The camera then panned away to show a body lying on the ground.
Scotland Yard confirmed that counterterrorism officers were leading an investigation into the attack. Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the two men had been arrested and urged Londoners to remain calm. Both men were hospitalized, one in serious condition.
Late Wednesday, riot police fanned out in Woolwich as about 50 men waving the flag of the far-right English Defense League gathered, singing nationalistic songs and shouting obscenities about the Quran.
Britain has been at the heart of several terror attacks or plots in recent years, the most deadly being the 2005 rush-hour suicide bombings when 52 commuters were killed. More recently, Parviz Khan was convicted in 2008 of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham.
Some extremists have lashed out at Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently, groups have also criticized Britain’s assistance in the French-led mission to Mali to root out Islamic extremists in the north.
Foxnews.com
