‘Sydney knife attacker had mental health issues’
SYDNEY: The man who fatally stabbed six people in Sydney had mental health issues in the past and there is no indication ideology was a motive in the attack in one of the city’s busiest shopping centres, police said yesterday.
The attacker, identified by police as Joel Cauchi, 40, was known to police in neighbouring Queensland state. Police have spoken to his family after Saturday’s attack.
Cauchi’s family recognised him and contacted police after seeing news reports of the killings.
The family said they were devastated by his actions, expressing condolences to the victims and the police officer who shot him dead.
“Joel’s actions were truly horrific and we are still trying to comprehend what has happened,” the family said in a statement. “He has battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.”
Cauchi ran through the Westfield Bondi Junction mall with a knife, fatally stabbed six people and injured at least 12 before he was killed by Inspector Amy Scott, who confronted him solo while he was on the rampage.
Shoppers and staff tried to stop him and crowds sheltered in shuttered shops.
“This was a terrible scene,” New South Wales police’s Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said. “There is still to this point nothing that we have, no information we received, no evidence we have recovered or intelligence that we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation, ideology or otherwise.”
Cauchi recently moved here, the capital of New South Wales, from Queensland. Police said they had searched a small storage facility he had been renting, but found no major evidence to indicate an attack was coming.
He was diagnosed with mental health issues when he was 17 and had been in contact with police frequently in the past four to five years, but had not been arrested or charged with any crimes in Queensland.
Cauchi led an itinerant lifestyle, had recently been sleeping in his car and had only infrequently stayed in touch with his mother.
Such attacks are rare in Australia, a country of about 26 million people with some of the world’s toughest gun and knife laws.
Five of the six people killed were women, police said yesterday, while those taken to hospital with stab wounds included a baby, who was in a serious but stable condition. The baby’s mother, Ashlee Good, died in hospital from her injuries.
Faraz Tahir, a 30-year-old security guard at the mall who was the sole man killed during the attack, arrived in the country last year as a refugee from Pakistan.