Australian police said on Sunday (May 5) they shot dead a 16-year-old boy, after a man was stabbed in a Perth suburb, in an attack authorities said indicated terrorism.
The “middle-aged” victim, stabbed in the back, was stable in hospital, authorities said.
The 16-year-old boy, described as “Caucasian”, was known to the police. Col Blanch, the police commissioner of the state of Western Australia, said the boy had mental health issues and had been part of a police deradicalisation programme.
Speaking at a news conference, state premier Roger Cook said: “There are indications he had been radicalised online. But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears he acted solely and alone.”
The boy was holding a large kitchen knife when police arrived at a car park in the suburb of Willetton after 10pm on Saturday night.
Commissioner Blanch said the boy had called the police and told them he had planned to commit “acts of violence”.
Two officers initially shot him with their Tasers but neither had “the full desired effect”, Blanch told reporters. A third officer then shot the boy with his firearm. The teenager died in hospital later in the night, he said.
Police body camera images showed the teenager refused officers’ demands that he put down the knife, the police chief said.
NOT “TERRORIST ATTACK” AT THIS STAGE
Police have confirmed the boy had been part of an online programme for the last few years aimed at young people “exhibiting behaviours that are it might be religious or issues motivated concerns”.
“It is not a criminal-based approach,” said Blanch. “But it is a programme to help individuals who are expressing ideologies that are of concern in our community. But they may not be committing any crimes.”
Police said they did not know what had triggered the attack.
However, Blanch said the incident was not being labelled as a terrorist attack at this stage, while at the same time conceding that the stabbing “certainly has the hallmarks of being one”. The boy was believed to be acting alone.
Authorities added they had received calls from concerned members of the local Muslim community before the attack.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed by police and intelligence services who had advised there was no “ongoing threat”.
“We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia,” he said in a message on social media.
The incident comes after New South Wales police last month charged several boys with terrorism-related offences in investigations following the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop while he was giving a live-streamed sermon in Sydney, on April 15.
The attack on the bishop came only days after a deadly mass stabbing in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi that claimed the lives of six people.
Gun and knife crime is rare in Australia, which consistently ranks among the safest countries in the world, according to the federal government.
