MOSCOW, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - Nicholas Salvador, 25, was charged with murdering a woman and assaulting a police officer in northern London, AFP reports.
Palmira Silva, 82, was attacked in broad daylight in the back garden of her house, located in Edmonton, in what is a “very, very unusual and not common” incident in that residential area, according to Commander Simon Letchford. She was found at around 1 p.m. on Thursday and pronounced dead at the scene. The exact nature of her injuries, as well as the type of weapon used has not been made public. However, it is believed that she was beheaded with a machete.
Freda Odame, who lives near the scene of the incident, told the Guardian that she saw a man with a knife a few gardens down. “He was screaming … and looked frantic. You could see he seemed aggressive,” she said.
Police were called to Edmonton after receiving reports that a knife-wielding man attacked an animal, presumably a cat. Local police officers and armed officers arrived at the scene, evacuated terrified neighbors and distracted the man suspected of killing the elderly woman. They cornered the suspect and used a taser gun to subdue him. One of the officers was injured. He reportedly suffered a broken wrist.
Nicholas Salvador remains in custody and will appear in court again on Tuesday.
The incident bears resemblance to the killing of Lee Rigby, a British soldier, who was stabbed in Woolwich, southeast London, on May 22, 2013, not to mention recent beheadings of journalists in Syria by ISIS militants. Although the motive remains unknown the incident is not related to terrorism, said DCI John Sandlin, who is leading the investigation, according to a statement issued by the Metropolitan Police.
