‘It was like he had his hands in red paint’: Security guard tells of carnage in Reading park as terror suspect Khairi Saadallah, who was known to MI5, was arrested over three murders – but his brother says he was ‘defending himself’
A security guard has revealed how he saw the suspect of a triple murder terror attack in Reading on Saturday get rugby tackled by a police officer, adding that his hands were so covered in blood it looked like he had put them in ‘a bucket of red paint’.
Three people were killed and another three were injured in a frenzied knife attack in Forbury Gardens, Reading on Saturday evening, with suspect Khairi Saadallah, 25 and previously known to MI5, arrested for the rampage.
He was detained under the Terrorism Act, though police are thought to be looking at mental health reasons for the attack.
Saadallah’s brother Mo slammed the terror arrest and wrote on Facebook: ‘This is not true. Khairi defended himself…racist countries. Freedom for my brother!’
It came as personal trainer Lawrence Wort, 20, described seeing three drinkers being ‘severely’ stabbed in the neck and under the arms before the attacker turned, stared at him, and then began running towards his group carrying a ‘five-inch knife’.
Meanwhile, security guard Sydney McDonald, 65, revealed how he saw the suspect being detained by police.
He said: ‘I had just finished work at about 7.10pm and as soon as I came out of the shop, there were about four police cars, they turned around in the middle of the road, they were driving pretty fast.
‘There was a guy and I saw him pointing to a man and saying ”There he is, there he is”. If he hadn’t, they would have missed him.
‘He was running really fast, properly fast. They put the emergency brakes on, jumped out of the car and rugby-tackled him to the floor.
‘He was on his stomach and the blood on his hands looked like he had put his hand in a big bucket of red paint.
‘They put the handcuffs on, he wasn’t putting up a fight or anything like that, they picked him up and put him in the van, he just sat there all quiet, he wasn’t saying nothing.’
As well as witnessing the arrest on Saturday, Mr McDonald says he had previously been assaulted by the suspect last year when he stopped him from shoplifting from the Sainsbury’s store where he works in Reading town centre.
Saadallah, who is thought to have only been released from prison for various offences 16 days ago, came to the attention of MI5 last year, after they suspected he was planning to travel to Syria for ‘extremist reasons’.
Danyal Hussain, James Fielding, Vivek Chaudhary, James Robinson – DailyMail – June 21, 2020.
