Detectives are investigating whether an alleged attempt to break into a homeless hostel by the suspect in the Nottingham triple knife attacks was a search for more victims or a sign of erratic behaviour.
The investigation into Tuesday’s attacks, which killed three people, has established that the suspect arrested has a history of mental health issues and was previously known to police, multiple sources have told the Guardian.
Two 19-year-old students at Nottingham University, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, were stabbed first and were found dying in the street just after 4am.
Footage unearthed on Wednesday shows a man clad in black and with a bag, matching the suspect for the attacks, attempting to break into a hostel through an open window.
Police said: “Investigations have then revealed that a man matching the description of the suspect had attempted to gain entry to a supported living complex in Mapperley Road but had been denied entry.”
The hostel is close to the junction of Mapperley Road and Magdala Road, and 30 seconds’ walk from the place on Magdala Road where the third stabbing victim, Ian Coates, 65, was found in the street.
Police believe the attacker took Coates’s van and drove to the Milton Street area at about 5.30am, allegedly turning it into a weapon to run over three pedestrians, two of whom were standing at a bus stop. Shortly after this, officers arrested a man.
Police said: “A short while later, police managed to detain the suspect by using a Taser when he abandoned the vehicle and approached officers with a knife.”
The 31-year-old suspect was in custody on Wednesday as detectives tried to establish a motive. His mental health is an active line of investigation and Nottinghamshire police said they had not dropped terrorism as a potential motive and retained an open mind.
Counter-terrorism officers are assisting the investigation because the nature of the violence meted out over 90 minutes showed similarities to past terrorist attacks.
The suspect had a phone on him and searches have found other electronic devices linked to him. The devices are being forensically searched for any clue as to motivation, with nothing so far showing that ideology incited the attacks.
The time the attacks started, at about 4am when fewer people were on the streets than in the daytime, jars with the motive being terrorist.
Police believe the attacker acted alone. The suspect lives in Nottingham and is believed to have links to London. He is not believed to have been a past subject of interest for counter-terrorism investigators, and the government is being briefed as the criminal investigation develops.
The Sun reported that in August 2022 the suspect travelled to the London headquarters of MI5, leading to security guards at Thames House to take his name and log it. The incident was discovered when the Security Service checked its records after Tuesday’s attacks.
Detectives are liaising with the counter-terrorism division of the Crown Prosecution Service, which sources say is normal where terrorism is a possibility.
Police denied claims that they received calls about the suspect before the rampage of violence began. “There have also been reports that other calls were made to Nottinghamshire police about the suspect before he carried out the attacks in Ilkeston Road. This is not the case,” police said.
Alex Pridmore, a trustee of All Saints Homeless Shelter, which runs the homeless hostel that the suspect appeared to have tried to break into, said: “The man tried to climb through a ground-floor bay window, which was open, and the resident of that room woke up and rushed to the window to close it. The resident then alerted security.” He added: “The intruder was not known to us.”
Pridmore said the resident was “shaken” but not physically harmed, and the man then ran off. The home has provided CCTV footage to police.
The resident into whose room the alleged attacker tried to climb said the incident happened about 5.15am. Coates was found dead nearby 15 minutes later.
The resident said: “I was awake from 4.15am because I have chronic COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] and can’t breathe, so was watching TV when a black guy tried to climb in through the window. I pushed him away. He went away and then came back and tried to smash the window. No one is getting into my yard.”
Police said the attempted break-in was not reported to them at the time.
