Special correspondent, BBC News
A police officer who confronted Marcus Monzo after he murdered schoolboy Daniel Anjorin with a samurai sword in Hainault, east London, last year says he does not see himself as a hero.
Inspector Moloy Campbell engaged in face-to-face fighting with Monzo – receiving a slash wound to his hand as he tried to disarm him.
But he said his team of officers are “undoubtedly heroic” for their actions in stopping the attack.
Recalling the confrontation in April 2024, Insp Campbell told the BBC: “It’s a natural instinct: fight or flight, and in that moment it was fight. There was emotion after the event and after it all died down, but there was no fear.”
He added: “And I don’t think there was much fear from anyone actually, because they’re police officers and are expected to take action and that’s hard drilled into them and they did it well.”
The series of attacks started at 06:45 BST on 30 April 2024, when Monzo drove a van into a 33-year-old pedestrian, Donato Iwule, and then chased him, slashing him in the neck.
Monzo then turned his attention to Daniel, 14, who was walking down the residential street he lived on, wearing his school PE kit and headphones, unaware of his presence. Monzo fatally wounded him with a 60cm (24in) sword.
He later entered a nearby home where a couple and their four-year-old daughter were asleep.
Monzo, 37, is being sentenced on Friday at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of murdering Daniel, as well as attempted murder and wounding.
Insp Campbell said his only thought on the morning of the attack – as he was called to the scene and then heard that his colleague, PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield, had been stabbed by Monzo – was determination.
“The only feeling I had was the need to complete what had to be done, which was disarming Mr Monzo and ultimately the preservation of life.”
Metropolitan PoliceInsp Campbell and his colleagues ran towards Monzo and appeared to have him cornered by a set of garages.
The officer said Monzo “was slashing at me, and I was hitting him, and my baton hit his sword mid-air and we clipped each other.
“He went across the top of my chest and cut off part of my body worn camera and I made small contact with him but not enough to cause any real concern for him.
“I could see that he had real determination in his eyes. We then went back at each other and hit each other and at that point the blade came down my arm, cutting my fleece and then nicking my hand on the way out.
“I looked down at my hand and I could see the inside of it and my thumb was hanging down.”
Former delivery driver Monzo managed to run away but the officers eventually found him a short distance away, fired a number of Tasers and managed to arrest him.
The trial was told about the bravery of the officers on that day but Insp Campbell, who tried to return to tackling Monzo, despite his severe injury, brushed off the suggestions he had been heroic.
“I think anyone considering themselves a hero is distasteful, so I wouldn’t consider myself a hero. Whether I consider other officers heroes is something very different, and I absolutely do.”
But he was clear he thinks his officers showed heroism every day and Hainault was no different to the bravery they normally displayed.
Insp Campbell said protecting the public and preventing death and injuries were what officers were here to do and he was prepared to put his life on the line to do his job.
Paying tribute to Daniel Anjorin’s family, the officer said he had only got upset in the hospital, when he had discovered the schoolboy had died.
Henry De Los Rios Polania, who protected his wife and four-year-old daughter after Monzo burst into their bedroom while they were asleep, said the attack has impacted his whole life.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr De Los Rios Polania said Monzo kept asking them if they believed in God. At first they both said yes, but a second time his wife said no.
“That’s the moment when he grabbed the sword with both his hands and tried to cut the head off Carolina. So when I saw his intentions I was like I can’t let this happen, he’s going to kill us in there. So I tried to pick up the sword with my own hands.”
He suffered severe wounds to his hand and has had to have three operations and faces two more.
The IT engineer revealed Monzo only stopped when their four-year-old daughter started crying and said “mama” and “papa”.
“He stepped back because he wasn’t expecting the little one in the room, and he just pointed the sword towards my little one’s face, and then Carolina’s and then to me and he said ‘I’m just going to let you live because of your little one.'”
Mr De Los Rios Polania said he has spent the last year unable to work, just trying to recover.
“All I can say is, I’m surviving,” he said.
Giving evidence in court, he said he was initially scared to see Monzo again but had managed to remain calm and the defendant looked away from him, refusing eye contact.
The bravery he displayed to keep his family safe was, he feels, nothing compared to others.
“If people want to call me a hero because I managed to protect my family, then they’re most welcome. But the real heroes are the police and the NHS. Those are the real heroes because they saved my life. Because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t think I would be here.”
Monzo, of Canning Town, east London, will be sentenced for the murder of Daniel Anjorin; the attempted murder of Sindy Carolina Arias, PC Mechem-Whitfield, and Mr Iwule; the wounding of Insp Campbell and Mr De Los Rios Polania; aggravated burglary, and two weapon possession charges.
