Watch: Abdul Edezi filmed smiling as he shops a day before Clapham chemical attack
The Clapham chemical attack suspect was captured on CCTV grinning as he shopped for groceries just a day before the alleged assault, The Telegraph can reveal.
Abdul Shokoor Ezedi, 35, can be seen smiling at the shopkeeper as he bought two and a half dozen eggs with cash at a specialist Middle Eastern food store on Byker Road, near where he lived in the east end of Newcastle.
The footage, captured on Tuesday lunchtime, has been obtained by The Telegraph and given to the Metropolitan Police.
The following day, Ezedi drove to London where he is alleged to have attacked a woman and two children with a corrosive chemical at Clapham, in the south-west of the capital.
Staff at the Byker Road store, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were “horrified” that Ezedi, a chef at a pizza takeaway restaurant, had been connected to the attack because he was known as a “good Muslim”.
They also said he had told them that he planned to return to Afghanistan “to find a wife”.
The Halal butcher, a Kurdish Iranian, said Ezedi would usually pay £50 to £60 for a half of Halal sheep, which he put in his freezer and which would last a couple of weeks.
However, last week he bought eggs, Halal sausage and a tin of food with a £10 note.
In the clip, he can be seen wearing a black jacket, wringing his hands and chatting at shortly after 1.30pm on Tuesday. He seems calm and relaxed, and at one point appears to make a joke with the shopkeeper.
The cameras were installed by N.E. CCTV & Alarm LTD.
On Wednesday, he was filmed in north London, wearing a black hooded puffer jacket, some 70 minutes after he allegedly attacked a woman and her two children with a chemical.
The Byker Road shopkeeper recalled his last conversation with Ezedi about a month ago, saying: “Last time I had a talk with him, I asked him why doesn’t get married, and he said ‘I have no money. I have to go to Afghanistan to get married, to be with one of our people’.
“He said he had to get a wife back home. He said he was always working – seven days, it is very hard [to find a wife].
“He asked me why I am not married. I said I cannot go back to Iran on political grounds, so it is difficult to find a wife. He said, ‘I have to go back to Afghanistan to find a wife’. He would start work at 3pm.”
After being shown a photograph released by the Met Police of the man they are hunting, the shopkeeper said: “It is him. 100 per cent.”
He added that details about Ezedi had been shared among Kurdish people on a local Instagram group because he was known in the east of Newcastle.
