Eniola Mustafa Aminu has been sent to a psychiatric hospital after arming himself with a knife and fighting with police outside the Houses of Parliament
A knifeman who claimed he was on a ‘death by cop’ suicide mission after he was caught outside the Houses of Parliament has been sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Eniola Mustafa Aminu, 27, was Tasered by police close to the Carriage Gates entrance to the Palace of Westminster on the morning of June 16.
The bearded 27-year-old was armed with a nine-inch kitchen knife and fought officers during attempts to detain him.
He later claimed he brought the weapon so police would shoot him, as he felt unable to kill himself because of his religion, Southwark Crown Court heard. Prosecutors said it was unclear which religion he followed.
The incident happened three months after and a matter of yards away from where terrorist Khalid Masood stabbed and killed PC Keith Palmer in March.
Police Sergeant Jonathan Pope, who was left with cuts to his arm after he bravely wrestled Aminu to the ground, believed he was dealing with a potential terrorist, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Scotland Yard later described the event as ‘not terror related’.
Animu told a police forensic medical examiner: ‘I wanted the police to see me and shoot me’.
He was Tasered and injured one officer before he was detained. He told police he wanted to die through so-called ‘death by cop’ because suicide was not permitted by his unspecified religion
Gregor McKinley, prosecuting, told the court: ‘The police made further enquiries at his address and about the defendant generally and they are satisfied that there is no terrorist or ideological reason behind the offence.’
Ilse Gifford, defending, said: ‘He wanted to die. He felt unable to take his own life due to his religious beliefs and felt the only way to bring about his own death was to be seen at the Houses of Parliament by police officers and to be shot by them.
‘Clearly, this thought pattern was a direct result of his severe mental illness.’
Aminu admitted possessing an offensive weapon in a public place at an earlier hearing. But he denied assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty, claiming to not remember any assault. That charge was dropped after Aminu admitted carrying the knife.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: ‘Every psychiatrist who has seen you since you committed this offence agrees that you were mentally unwell at the time you committed it and you are still mentally unwell.
‘Your mental illness began to show itself last year and resulted in your detention under the mental health act of three to four months this year.’
The incident came three months after terrorist Khalid Masood stabbed a policeman outside Parliament after driving into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge
The judge added: ‘The court is satisfied that you are suffering from a mental disorder of a nature or degree which makes it appropriate for you to be detained in a hospital for medical treatment.
‘I make an order under the Mental Health Act 1983 Section 37 for your detention until you are better, then you can gradually be released back into the community.’
Aminu, of Greenwich, south-east London, will be treated at the Bracton Centre, a medium secure mental health unit in Kent.