Footage shows the moment convicted murderer Marcus Arduini Monzo slashed at police with a sword after he stabbed a schoolboy to death in the street.
Monzo, 37, had gone into a cannabis-induced psychosis when he murdered 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin during a 20-minute rampage in Hainault, east London, on April 30 last year.
Monzo launched the series of attacks by driving his grey Ford Transit van into Donato Iwule, who was “catapulted” into a nearby garden before the vehicle smashed into a concrete pillar and fence.
He went on to hit Mr Iwule in the neck with his sword before running away.
Monzo then virtually decapitated Daniel, who was wearing headphones on his way to school, jurors heard.
Witness Maria Olmos said he dropped to his knees and held his hands up after mortally wounding the schoolboy.
She said: “At the time of doing so he let out an extremely loud scream. It wasn’t a scream of pain, it was a scream of delight – my interpretation was he was celebrating.”
PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield was hit three times with the 60cm long blade with “extreme force” as she chased Monzo through alleyways and residential properties.
Next he entered a property and attacked a couple who were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom with their young daughter nearby.
Monzo demanded to know if they “believe in God” before he left the property.
Following his arrest, he claimed his personality had switched and that “something happened, like a game happening”.
Video shows the officers attempting to stop Monzo who strikes an ambulance with the sword as paramedics arrived to treat Daniel.
An officer attempting to help the victim on the ground was then approached by Monzo wielding the weapon before he was Tasered.
Afterwards, Monzo likened events to the Holywood movie The Hunger Games and claimed to have an alternative personality of a “professional assassin”.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors it was “miraculous” that more people weren’t killed as Monzo slashed and chopped at whoever he came across.
He had killed and skinned his pet cat Wizard before running amok.
An Old Bailey jury on Wednesday found Monzo guilty of Daniel’s murder, three charges of attempted murder, aggravated burglary and possession of a bladed article relating to a kitchen knife.
He was cleared of one count of attempted murder in relation to the victim Henry De Los Rios Polania but found guilty of the lesser offence of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Monzo, who showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out, previously admitted having the samurai sword used to kill Daniel and a katana sword found in his van.
He will be sentenced on Friday.
Daniel’s parents had sat in court throughout the trial when the harrowing CCTV and police body worn video had been played.
Metropolitan Police Inspector Moloy Campbell told jurors how he was injured as he tried to detain Monzo.
Before arriving at the scene, he heard on the radio that one of his colleagues had been stabbed.
A member of the public waved him down and pointed towards a car park and garage area.
Insp Campbell told jurors: “Our purpose was to arrest and protect the other officers. I decided to confront the defendant.”
He sprayed him first but the defendant “blocked” the move and “came for” the officer, jurors heard.
Mr Campbell went on: “I dropped my spray and drew my baton. I struck him or attempted to strike him. I believe I connected with him at least twice.
“Mr Monzo was slashing at me with a large sword. He made contact with my hand and certainly with my bodyworn camera.”
Asked how he felt, the officer told jurors: “I was disappointed to put it bluntly because it meant I could not carry on what I was trying to do.”
Trial judge Mr Justice Bennathan observed: “Presumably you were terrified because someone is slashing at you with a sword.”
The witness replied: “It was frightening. I remember my priority to try to carry on.”
He said he saw blood when he looked down at his hand and his baton was also covered in blood.
Mr Campbell said he found himself “backed into a corner” and withdrew, and asked a colleague to put a tourniquet on his thumb.
He was treated at the scene and taken to hospital as the defendant was detained and arrested a short time later, the court was told.
In his evidence, Monzo described being bullied growing up in Brazil before his family moved to Britain in 2013.
He practised mixed martial arts until an injury in 2016 led him to explore yoga and the “magical, miraculous and supernatural” aspects of spirituality, he said.
Forensic pathologist Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl told jurors that Daniel’s injuries were “absolutely unsurvivable”.
He said that Daniel’s cause of death was sharp force trauma to the head and that Monzo had used “an extreme level of force”.
Jurors later heard from Monzo’s brother Eduardo, who said Marcus had consumed ayahuasca – a hallucinogenic plant-based brew commonly used in South America – during a stay at a remote retreat in the Amazon.
“He told me he had drunk ayahuasca,” the witness said through a Portuguese interpreter. “It’s quite common in the north of Brazil.
“He didn’t specify how much, but I believe he was drinking it quite a lot.
“I became slightly concerned because I had heard some people had a negative response to that drink.”
After his arrest, no trace of DMT – the class A hallucinogen found in ayahuasca – was detected in Monzo’s system.
Monzo attended retreats in India and the Amazon, before beginning to withdraw from the family, his brother said.
Eduardo added Monzo spent hours meditating, sleeping on the floor and avoiding physical contact, particularly with their mother.
“He would spend 10 to 20 hours a day meditating,” Eduardo said. “He kept his door closed. He wasn’t the Marcus I knew.”
Eduardo said Monzo followed a YouTube spiritual guru named Sadhguru, but later burned a picture of him and claimed the guru was “a demon who put a spell on him”.
He was “not the same person”, the witness said, and in the days before the attack had started “talking strange” and avoiding family contact.
