Edmonton Murder: The Bearded Muslim Beheader Is Not A Muslim
THE Edmonton Garden Murder: A look at reporting on the murder of Palmira Silva allegedly by one Nicholas Salvadore.
Reports are replete with news that Mrs Silva was “beheaded”. But other news says she was “almost decapitated” in a frenzied attack.
Sky News suggests Mrs Silva was already dead before she was beheaded:
The Mirror: “‘The bogeyman”: Edmonton machete murderer who beheaded gran alleged to be cage fighter ‘Fat Nick'”
The boygeyman? The alleged killer of 82-year-old Mrs Silva is now a figure of fantasy rather than the Sun’s “Muslim”.
Indeed, the Mirror does not mention the alleged killer’s religion once.
Nicholas Salvadore has been described by locals as “the local bogeyman” whom people would “stay away from”… Aspiring cage fighter Nicholas Salvadore, known to pals as “Fat Nick”, was tonight under armed guard in hospital having psychological tests after being held over the 82-year-old’s gruesome murder.
The bogeyman. Fat Nick. Monster. The Mirror goes through the nicknames for the man who murdered a woman in broad daylight.
As neighbours struggled to come to terms with Palmira’s brutal slaying, one described her alleged attacker as “scary”.
Well, yes. He is terrifying. But, as the police told us, Nicholas Salvadore is not a terrorist.
Local man Fred Baines, 43, said: “Sometimes he would shout out things, just random stuff. Call people names.”
Sticks and stones…
Charles Smith, who once had a flat below Salvadore, told how the murder suspect would invite dozens of friends to his home for late-night raves. The 30-year-old said: “He would have wild parties that lasted until the early hours, blasting out hip-hop and rap music.”
The Mirror has stepped back from its earlier report:
This is the alleged killer on the morning of the horror. Spot the beard:
The Telegraph: “Nick Salvadore, suspect for beheading of Palmira Silva, is would-be cage-fighter and Muslim convert”
Mrs Silva is understood to have been attacked by a suspect who had argued with his flatmates minutes earlier, prompting them to flee in terror in a car as he smashed one of its windows. The killer then beheaded two cats, ranting as he did so, before targeting Mrs Silva. A neighbour said the suspect had told her a week ago: “The police are looking for me, but they can’t find me, I’m going to hide.”
About that Islam:
Dave Jensen, 52, a builder who once employed Mr Salvadore as a labourer, said he had converted to Islam five years ago. However he added that he had never behaved aggressively regarding his religion or beliefs.
Mr Jensen said: “Nick told me in passing he’d turned to Islam, about five years ago. But he wasn’t in your face about it. He didn’t try and convert others or talk about religion and politics at all. “He worked for me off and on, labouring and clearing rubbish in houses round here.”
Did he use the internet? Any jihadi stuff?
Khairul Islam, 40, who runs an Internet cafe close to Mrs Silva’s home, said: “He’d come over quite a lot and search the internet for things like cars. He was one of these people that just hangs around, a bit of a ruffian but never violent to me. He seemed OK, just a loafer.”
The Standard leads with the man’s Islamic bent but hedges its bet with a set inverted commas.
The Guardian is heavy on religion:
Detectives tried to establish on Friday what drove a man to allegedly go on a rampage and behead an 82-year-old woman in her garden on Thursday, while a monitoring group said the incident had already led to a spike in threats to Muslims and mosques…
Police insisted that the alleged murder of Silva was not connected to terrorism, but a group monitoring threats against British Muslims said it saw a rise in reports within hours of the news breaking. Fiyaz Mughal, director of Tell Mama, said the incidents included threats in the street to women wearing the hijab in Wales and south London, and threats on social media.
Mughal said of special concern was that the threats had changed to naming specific targets, including a mosque.
Mughal said: “The assumption is ‘beheading equals Muslim’. The association, for some, is an automatic response.”
So much for the idiots. But Islam played no part in the murder?
The nature of the alleged killing, coming 48 hours after the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff by Islamic State militants, led to early speculation. One newspaper report claimed the Edmonton suspect was a Muslim convert. But police stressed the lack of a terrorist connection in three separate statements.
The Mail spots what went before. Is that burger halal?
CCTV has emerged of Mr Salvador’s movements two hours before the murder, which shows him eating a quarter-pounder burger and an egg in a nearby cafe before apparently walking out without paying.
And:
Last night a friend said: ‘Nicholas is an only child and his parents brought him here from Nigeria. But when he was about 13 or 14 he left home.’ ‘The truth is, he has never felt loved. He has been unlucky all his life. He was always down, he never smiled, he never had any money. He was a known failure.’ Another friend said: ‘He is from a Muslim background but he is not a good Muslim – he gambles, plays roulette.”
It’s alleged he’s done worse.
Posted: 6th, September 2014 | In: Reviews Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
