It does not appear to be terrorism, but a case of mental health. Anthony Williams, the 32-year-old man who stabbed ten people on a British train on Saturday night shouting "The devil will not win!", seems to have suffered psychological problems for a long time that, judging by the limited information provided by the British Police, were known for some time by local authorities. This obviously shifts the debate from terrorism to the mental health crisis among the homeless and those on the brink of homelessness, as in his first appearance in court this Monday, Williams responded negatively to the question of whether he has a fixed residence.
Furthermore, in the hours leading up to his stabbing spree on the train from Doncaster to London, Williams had already been involved in two incidents of knife stabbings. The first took place on Friday between 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. local time in the city center of Peterborough, where he stabbed a 14-year-old teenager with a knife and fled. The victim did not require hospitalization.
Five and a half hours later, Williams was in the Docklands neighborhood in London, 120 kilometers from Peterborough. There, he boarded a train near the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) line, which is driverless, and stabbed another person in the face. By nine-thirty in the morning, he was back in Peterborough, where a store owner called the police to report a man armed with a large knife on the street. Williams left before the officers arrived. According to British media reports, it is very likely that the knife used in all these attacks was the one Williams used to injure ten people on the train.
In total, Williams has been charged with eleven counts of attempted murder -ten for his actions on the train and one for the Docklands attack-, one of assault -as, after being arrested, he mugged a law enforcement officer in the police facilities- and two of possession of a bladed weapon.
This wave of senseless violent acts suggests that Williams is very dangerous, which in turn raises the question of why the authorities did not take any measures to control him. In fact, his assault on the 14-year-old in Peterborough city center has not yet been used against him by the prosecution, despite being a clear violent act with the intent to cause harm. Similarly, the station videos where he boarded the train show him calmly carrying a knife with a blade of about 20 to 30 centimeters.
Of the eleven injured on the train, five remain hospitalized tonight. One of them is in critical condition. He is an employee of the train line who confronted Williams and received multiple stab wounds. His actions have been described as "heroic" by London North Eastern Railway (LNER), the company that operates that route.