Details have begun to emerge about the man arrested for the murder of a great grandmother beheaded in her back garden.
He was named locally as Nicholas Salvadore, a 25-year-old would-be cage fighter who is believed to be a Muslim convert, who had been living a few doors from 82-year-old Palmira Silva.
Salvadore was under arrest and under armed guard in hospital today after the events in a street in north London yesterday. Detectives say they have ruled out terrorism as a motive.
Italian-born Mrs Silva, who owned a local café in Edmonton with her son Tony for more than 30 years, was found dead in the back garden of her home in Nightingale Road yesterday. Neighbours said a man dressed in black had decapitated cats with a foot-long machete-like blade and smashed the window of a car before running through rear gardens banging on doors and windows.
He may have been mentally ill, which is why the police may not be calling it “terrorism”. According to the Daily Mail:
Witnesses said the 25-year-old man, dressed all in black, was carrying a foot-long machete, which was stained with blood.
One heard him shout ‘The cats have stolen my lighter’ as he hacked one animal to pieces.
‘He had a crazed look in his eyes so I closed my curtains because I was scared. He was a black man, about 25 to 30, wearing all black, black T-shirt and jeans, about 5ft 10in.
Neighbours said the killer was a Nigerian who had been sleeping at the home of a friend in recent weeks. Others said the heavily tattooed killer is well-known in the neighbourhood, where he has the nickname ‘Fat Nick’.
One said: ‘He’s a crazy guy. He’s got a big belly and tattoos and he walks the streets sticking his fingers up at people like Somalis.’
That said, you can be mentally ill and still be influenced by extremism. Indeed many would suggest that Islamic terrorists are suffering from a mass delusion.
There was a report he may have been influenced by ISIS beheadings. This might be why he was dressed all in black.
The Daily Mail quote above almost “sticking his fingers up at people like Somalis” may have an importance that they don’t realize.
The Islamic State militants, known as ISIS, are now using a single, raised index finger as the symbol of their cause. It’s a well-known sign of power and victory around the world, but for ISIS, it has a more sinister meaning.
Nathaniel Zelinsky writes in Foreign Affairs that the gesture refers to the tawhid, “the belief in the oneness of God and a key component of the Muslim religion.” More specifically, though, it refers to their fundamentalist interpretation of the tawhid, which rejects any other view, including other Islamic interpretations, as idolatry. Zelinsky writes that when ISIS uses the gesture, it is affirming an ideology that demands the destruction of the West, as well as any form of pluralism. For potential recruits around the globe, it also shows their belief that they will dominate the world.
