Rigby had arrived at
Woolwich Arsenal station at 14:10 and was walking down Wellington Street towards the Barracks.
[35][36] While Rigby was crossing the road to get to a shop, two men, who were later identified as Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, drove a
Vauxhall Tigra car at him at 30 to 40 miles per hour (50 to 60 km/h), knocking him to the ground.
[37][38] They attacked Rigby with knives and a cleaver, and attempted to
behead him.
[9][11][39]
Immediately after the attack, several passers-by stood over Rigby's body to protect him from further injury.
[38] Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader from Cornwall,
[40] disembarked from a passing bus with the intention of rendering first aid, after she saw what she thought was a road accident. On discovering that the victim was dead she engaged one of the assailants in conversation. The man said he was responsible for killing the man on the ground – a British soldier who the attacker claimed had "killed Muslims in Iraq and in Afghanistan".
[41][42] She asked one of the men to hand over his weapons, but he refused.
[43]
One of the assailants, filmed by a bystander, said:
The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one … By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. So what if we want to live by the Sharia in Muslim lands? Why does that mean you must follow us and chase us and call us extremists and kill us? … when you drop a bomb do you think it hits one person? Or rather your bomb wipes out a whole family? … Through many passages in the Koran we must fight them as they fight us … I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your governments, they don’t care about you. You think David Cameron is gonna get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? Do you think politicians are going to die? No, it's going to be the average guy, like you and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back … leave our lands and you will live in peace.
—Michael Adebolajo, excerpted from a
Daily Telegraph transcript
[44]
Adebolajo also gave a bystander at the scene a handwritten two-page note which set out his justification for his actions.
[45][46] The assailants remained at the scene and asked bystanders to call the police.
[47] The
Metropolitan Police received the first 999 call about an assault at 14:20 and regular unarmed police were deployed. Subsequent 999 calls said the attackers had a firearm, and armed police were ordered to the scene at 14:24. Unarmed police arrived at 14:29, set up a cordon, and remained behind it.
[48] Authorised Firearms Officers arrived at 14:34. Two men, one brandishing a cleaver and the other a revolver, charged at the police. Armed police fired eight times and both men were wounded.
[38][49] They were arrested and taken to separate hospitals. A revolver, knives, and a cleaver were seized at the scene. The victim, Rigby, was pronounced dead and formally identified.
[49]
