The man suspected of stabbing two Jewish people in Golders Green has been named as Essa Suleiman.

Suleiman, 45, a Somali-born British national, was arrested on Wednesday after Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, named locally as Moshe Shine, 76, were attacked by a knifeman.

Police have confirmed the suspect is a 45-year-old Somali-born British national with a history of ‘serious violence and mental health issues’, who was previously referred to Prevent.

He was referred to the government’s anti-extremism programme in 2020, but the case was closed later that year.  

It is understood Suleiman, previously of Camberwell, is a Somali translator who once worked as a school security guard.

In 2008, Suleiman was accused of attacking a police officer and his dog, leaving the officer with injuries that kept him off work for five months.

PC Neil Sampson was responding to reports of a knife attack in Swindon, Wiltshire, with his police dog Anya.

It was reported they chased the suspect as he fled, but the man stabbed the officer and dog repeatedly, while also injuring a second officer.

Essa Suleiman, 45, is a Somali-born British national who was previously accused of attacking a police officer in 2008

The Somali-born British national with a long history of violence and mental health problems, police have said 

While one of the police officers managed to throw the knife away, another officer as well as the bystander gained control of the man’s arm 

CCTV image reportedly shows the moment Moshe Shine was stabbed while waiting for a bus

Police across the UK have stepped up patrols in response to yesterday’s attack that saw the two Jewish men taken to hospital.

The suspect attacked in broad daylight at around 11:15am on Wednesday, before also attempting to stab police who arrived at the scene.

Video footage showed him being Tasered by Met officers before being kicked in the head, as they repeatedly yelled at him to ‘drop the knife’.

It came after police were called to a separate incident believed to involve the same suspect in Southwark, south London at 8:50am yesterday.

Officers were called to reports of a man armed with a knife involved in an altercation outside a property on Great Dover Street. 

One occupant of the address sustained minor injuries, and police launched a search for a man in the surrounding area.

But less than two hours later, on the opposite side of the city, the suspect is alleged to have stabbed the two men, whose injuries are fortunately not life-threatening.

Iranian-linked terror group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday, but intelligence sources suggested this was ‘opportunistic’. The group provided no evidence it was behind the stabbings.

The attack is the latest in a series of incidents involving Jewish sites over recent weeks and have prompted calls for urgent action, with accusations the Government has not done enough to tackle anti-Semitism.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis called for ‘meaningful action’ to tackle the ‘root causes’ of anti-Semitism, while the Board of Deputies of British Jews said anti-Semitism must be ‘confronted, punished and deterred with the full force of the state’.

The Commissioner of the Met Police Sir Mark Rowley yesterday confirmed the incident is being treated as a terror attack and warned against malign states and actors. 

He said: ‘This was an attack on Londoners and it was an attack on British Jews.

The Prime Minister visited Golders Green today, avoiding the crowds and meeting members of Shomrim, the Jewish community security organisation

Bodycam footage of the horrifying incident in Golders Green shows the alleged terrorist walk towards officers while refusing to drop the knife

‘Too many Jewish people in this country feel they have to make choices that no Briton should ever have to make, about how they dress, where they go, or how visibly they live their lives. That is completely unacceptable and has gone on for far too long.

‘We also need to be honest about the nature of the threat. Antisemitism is fuelled by hateful and extremist ideologies. It comes from hostile states, the extreme right, and the extreme left. 

‘These are terrorist and hateful belief systems but they are all rooted in racism. They are given space to operate when civic debate is weak, when hatred is excused, and when people are unwilling to challenge it directly.’

Today protesters in Golders Green showed their anger at Sir Keir as he finally visited the scene of the attack, 24 hours after it occurred, calling him a ‘coward’ for not facing them sooner.

One of the victims, Shloime Rand, 34, said from his hospital bed that he held the Government responsible and that it is a ‘miracle’ he survived being stabbed in the chest.

At lunchtime, the Labour leader’s police convoy took him away from the crowds heckling him. He was instead whisked into a closed doors meeting at the new headquarters of the local Jewish ambulance service Hatzollah.

Sir Keir held a roundtable with first responders and leaders from Hatzola as well as Shomrim, a volunteer Jewish security group.

He was joined by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Sarah Sackman, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, as well Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

Protester Mendy Muster, 23, an accountant and Golders Green local told the Daily Mail: ‘We all think he is a coward for not answering us directly. He does want to be held accountable.

‘He knows he has let us down. He knows it is his fault and he taking too long. He should have been yesterday let alone today. He is not doing enough he is not preventing anything he is reacting’.

Both victims remain in hospital in a stable condition, with a police probe into the terror-related incident ongoing

Police officers at the scene of the attack in Golders Green on Wednesday 

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said today she was treating the protection of Jewish communities as an ’emergency’.

The Government has unveiled £25million of funding to boost police patrols and protections around synagogues, schools and community centres.

Legislation creating powers to target people and organisations acting on behalf of state-sponsored groups will also be ‘fast-tracked’ in the coming weeks.

However, community leaders and the Tories insisted the investment was ‘not sufficient’, and there had to be action against ‘Islamist extremism and jihadism’.  

There are fresh demands for a ban pro-Palestine marches, with critics adamant they contribute to ‘a tone of anti-Semitism’.

Today leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski was condemned for sharing a tweet which appeared to suggest the hero policemen who disarmed the terror suspect had been too heavy-handed.

He reposted an online critic who said: ‘So essentially his [Sir Mark Rowley’s] officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser’.

It has led to accusations that Mr Polanski, who has previously said he would like to be the next prime minister, was ‘more concerned’ about the suspected terrorist’s wellbeing than those he is accused of stabbing in the street.