Streatham striker’s mother immediately knew her son was responsible, investigation shows | UK News

The mother of a terrorist killed by police after carrying out a knife rampage in south London said she instantly “knew” her son was responsible when she heard about the attack, few time after their last conversation.
Haleema Khan said her son Sudesh Amman signed their phone conversation with “Goodbye, I love you mom” before stealing a kitchen knife from a store and stabbing two unwitting members of the public on a Sunday afternoon in Streatham in February 2020.
He was shot dead by armed police within 62 seconds of launching his attack, in which both of his victims survived.
Khan told the Amman death inquest that she had “no idea” that her son was going to strike.
Speaking through a Tamil interpreter, Khan said she was on the phone with her husband on February 2 when an alert was issued by a news website about the Streatham incident.
“I was scared,” she said. “Then I noticed the jacket and shoes on the news, which was given to him by me. “
In her witness statement, she said: “I saw that someone had been shot in Streatham at 2 pm.
“I knew it was Sudesh. I saw on a website that the dead man was wearing [his brother’s] jacket and shoes.
“Then I called probation because I wanted to tell them that the jacket and shoes belonged to Sudesh.
“I called my husband and told him. We both called Sudesh for a long time.
She told Jonathan Hough QC, the lawyer for the investigation, that she then started to cry. “I was shocked,” she said. “I continued to cry.
“All my kids were running up to me and asking me why I was crying.”
Hough said: “Was there an explanation for what he did and what motivated him?”
Khan replied, “No, I didn’t think he was going to do these things and I had no idea.”
Khan told police she spoke to her son shortly after 1:30 p.m. on the day of the attack, when he said he was on his way to buy food.
The investigation had previously learned that Amman had left his probation hostel at 1:22 p.m. to go to Streatham High Road where he would carry out his attack while wearing a fake suicide device.
Recalling the conversation, she told the police, “Sudesh said he loved me. He said: ‘Good bye, I love you mom.’ He said that before. It was the last time I spoke to Sudesh.
The day before, in a telephone conversation about a recent family bereavement, Amman apparently told Khan: “Everyone [is] will die one day.
Amman was the oldest of six brothers and had been kicked out of school for misconduct. He grew up in Coventry and Birmingham before moving to Harrow, northwest London.
The investigation had previously learned how Amman was considered “one of the most dangerous people” that police and MI5 teams had investigated, and that an officer feared an attack would occur “when, not. if ”during discussions two weeks before his release.
He was automatically released from Belmarsh Prison on January 23, 2020, halfway to a 40-month sentence for obtaining and disseminating terrorist material.
This despite police calls for the governor of Belmarsh to detain Amman longer after intelligence suggested he was maintaining an extremist mindset and wished to carry out a knife attack in the future.
He was also reportedly associated in prison with a number of extremists, including Hashem Abedi, who conspired with his brother Salman about the Manchester Arena suicide bombing in 2017, and previously regretted not being involved. in the murder of rifleman Lee Rigby. outside Woolwich Barracks in 2013.
He also told others that he wanted to kill the queen, according to the investigation.
Amman, who is of Sri Lankan descent, spent 10 days in a bail home in Streatham, during which police teams undercover the guard noticed his “worrying” behavior.
Amman was seen by secret police buying four bottles of Irn-Bru, aluminum foil and parcel tape in Poundland on January 31, items that were used to make the fake “raw” suicide belt.
But they said there was not enough evidence to stop him and feared the search of his room would blow the blanket off them.
The investigation is continuing.