{"id":7958,"date":"2014-09-05T14:46:46","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T14:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/09\/05\/madman-decapitates-london-gran-with-machete\/"},"modified":"2014-09-05T14:46:46","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T14:46:46","slug":"madman-decapitates-london-gran-with-machete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/05\/madman-decapitates-london-gran-with-machete\/","title":{"rendered":"Madman Decapitates London Gran With Machete"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3>Palmira Silva, 82, was killed in random but frantic attack by a 25-year-old man<\/h3>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"1\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" vspace=\"10\" align=\"middle\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/LondonMacheteDecapitation-467x184.jpg\"\/><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>A woman was beheaded in her home in Edmonton in an indiscriminate attack by a \u2018crazed\u2019 man wielding a machete. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Palmira Silva, an 82-year-old widow and grandmother, was in her north London suburban garden when she was decapitated by the 25-year-old in the random but frantic attack. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Ms Silver, who was pronounced dead on the scene, was described as being \u201ca sweet lady\u201d by one neighbour, led an active life and was seen working every day at Silva\u2019s Caf\u00e9, a caf\u00e9 in Edmonton Green run by her family.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>The perpetrator, believed to be a local man, was seen by residents brandishing the foot-long blade which he had used to attack a passing vehicle and a cat before he began roaming back gardens in the area in search of a victim.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>Armed police subdued the attacker who was distracted by officers to prevent further attacks. He was cornered and taken down through use of a Taser stun gun before being arrested, an incident which left some officers injured.\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>A neighbour of the victim, who wished to remain anonymous, described the suspect as having wielded a machete whilst shouting about cats. The witness also saw a headless cat as he watched the perpetrator from his window.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>He said, \u201cThere was a scream so I went to the windows and saw a guy with a machete with blood dripping from it. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\u201cHe was standing in the garden and walking up and down shouting about cats.\u201d <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>Police believe that the suspect had attempted to attack a further two residents at another home in the street, but the individuals had escaped without injury.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"1\" hspace=\"10\" alt=\"\" vspace=\"10\" align=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/LondonMacheteDecapitation-250x200-2.jpg\"\/>Witnesses who described the police\u2019s desperate response to the incident said that officers used battering rams to break down front doors and smashed the windows of several properties. They attempted to help residents to safety and had carried terrified children away from the scene.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>Neighbour Freda Odame, a 30-year-old catering worker, said she heard what sounded like chaos outside and, upon pulling back her curtain, saw a mid-twenties man with a long-bladed knife outside.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\u201cSomeone was shouting and the door was banging. I could hear the screaming but I could not hear what he was saying,\u201d she said. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\u201cI could see that he had a big curved knife, about the size of an arm\u2019s length and he was crouching as if frantically searching for something. He had a crazed look in his eyes so I closed my curtains because I was scared.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<div\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<div\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"1\" hspace=\"10\" alt=\"\" vspace=\"10\" align=\"left\" src=\"http:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/Image\/ArticleImages\/LondonMacheteDecapitation-250x200-1.jpg\"\/><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nAnother neighbour, George Stylianou, said, \u201cPolicewomen were sprinting past and screaming at us, \u2018Get back \u2013 you don\u2019t understand how dangerous this man is\u2019.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>Witness Ricardo Kwiek, a 23-year-old taxi driver, saw officers storm into a property, bringing out a young man who was fighting the police before being forced into a van. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\u201cThere were policemen trying the front door and the back. The chap inside wasn\u2019t letting them in,\u201d he said. \u201cThey got in the back door. They came out with a man who was struggling and fighting. He wasn\u2019t giving up. I could see loads of police fighting with him.\u201d <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>Commander Simon Letchford, of the Metropolitan Police, had commended the bravery of the officers, saying they \u201cput themselves in extreme danger to protect the public\u201d. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>Though some residents have claimed that the suspect had converted to Islam last year, the claims remain unverified and detectives don\u2019t think the attack is connected to terrorism.<\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>Detective Chief Inspector John Sandlin, leading the investigation, said: \u201cWe are confident that we are not looking for anyone else at this stage. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\u201cWhilst it is too early to speculate on what the motive behind this attack was I am confident, based on the information currently available to me, that it is not terrorist related.\u201d <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>MP of Edmonton, Andy Love, added, \u201cI am absolutely horrified and stunned by what has happened in my constituency. This is a relatively solid community with relatively good relations between all of the people.\u201d <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>The suspect is currently in hospital facing treatment of the minor injuries he suffered during his arrest. <\/div>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Palmira Silva, 82, was killed in random but frantic attack by a 25-year-old man &#13; &#13; A woman was beheaded in her home in Edmonton in an indiscriminate attack by a \u2018crazed\u2019 man wielding a machete. &#13; \u00a0 &#13; Palmira Silva, an 82-year-old widow and grandmother, was in her north London suburban garden when she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}