Jury: Official failures played part in fatal London attack

An inquest jury says a string of failures by British authorities played a part in allowing an ex-convict who served time for terrorism offenses to kill two people in a knife attack in London

LONDON -- A string of failures by British authorities played a part in allowing an ex-convict who served time for terrorism offenses to kill two people in a knife attack in London, an inquest jury concluded Friday. Usman Khan carried out the November 2019 attack during a prisoner rehabilitation event he was attending at Fishmongers’ Hall. He killed two people and wounded three before he was chased onto nearby London Bridge and shot dead by police. The inquest jury concluded there was “a lack of accountability and deficiencies in management” by police, probation and intelligence authorities overseeing Khan after his release from prison. They said authorities were blinded by Khan’s “poster-boy” image as a rehabilitated prisoner, when in fact he remained a committed extremist. Inquests are held in Britain to establish the facts in cases of violent or unexplained deaths. The jury concluded that the two victims, Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were unlawfully killed.