UK Police Identify London Attacker as Khalid Masood

A former neighbor described the 52-year-old as “calm” with a “nice family”

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U.K. police have identified the man responsible for the terror attack in London Wednesday that resulted in the deaths of four people and injured 20 others as 52-year-old Khalid Masood.

The attacker, who was also killed, plowed a car into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge Wednesday afternoon before crashing near Parliament. He then fatally stabbed an officer before being shot by police.

The Metropolitan police said Masood had previous convictions for a number of violent offences, including GBH (grievous bodily harm) and assault, but had never been found guilty of terror offenses, according to The Guardian.

His first conviction, in November 1983, was for criminal damage and his last was for possession of a knife in December 2003.

The Guardian also reported that a woman, Iwona Romek, said she used to be neighbors with Masood and his family. She recognized him from a photograph of him on a stretcher.

“I have been so shocked by it all,” she said. “They were a nice family — very reserved. He was very calm. I saw the photos on the TV and knew it was the man who lived here. He had a wife, a young Asian woman and a small child who went to school.”

Romek noted that the man and his family moved out at around Christmas without saying goodbye to anyone.

While he was known to police, Masood wasn’t the subject of surveillance. He had a number of aliases, but “there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack,” officers said.

Law enforcement conducted a late-night raid near Romek’s Birmingham home, which is around 127 miles north of London, where the attacks took place.

“I just heard a lot banging and shouting,” Romek told reporters. “They were shouting to open the door. It was all a bit scary. There was a helicopter above and men in white suits.”

Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Rowley said police raided six addresses and arrested seven people in connection with the attack.

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