Cops: Killer may have targeted women

The man who fatally stabbed six people at a mall in Sydney’s beachside suburb of Bondi may have targeted women, police said yesterday, as the attacker’s father opened up about his son’s history of mental illness and frustrations with women.

Clad in shorts and an Australian national rugby league jersey, Joel Cauchi, 40, roamed through the busy Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday with a large knife. Five of the six people he killed were women as were the majority of the 12 injured.

He was shot dead by Inspector Amy Scott, who confronted him alone on the fifth floor after a pursuit through the mall.

The attacker’s father, Andrew

Cauchi yesterday he was devastated by the news and said his son had a history of mental illness and frustrations with women.

“He wanted a girlfriend and he has no social skills, and he was frustrated out of his brain,” he said in comments reported by The Australian newspaper.

“It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives that seems to be an area of interest that the offender had focused on women and avoided the men,” New South Wales state Police Commissioner Karen Webb told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“The videos speak for themselves, don’t they? That’s certainly a line for inquiry for us.”

Police have said there was no indication ideology was a motive.

The only man killed during the attack was 30-year-old security guard, Faraz Tahir, who had arrived in Australia last year as a refugee from Pakistan, according to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Australia, to which he belonged.

Authorities on Monday identified the sixth victim as Chinese national Yixuan Cheng, who was studying in the country.

The New South Wales government announced yesterday a A$18 million independent coronial inquest into the attack but Premier Chris Minns ruled out new rules that would allow private security guards to carry firearms.

Thousands of flowers and wreaths lay in a makeshift memorial outside the mall yesterday as hundreds came from across the city to honour those killed.

The Australian national flag is flying at half-mast across the country, including at the Parliament House and Sydney’s Harbour Bridge, in honour of the victims.

Sydney Opera House’s sails lit with a black ribbon yesterday evening.

AFP PIC Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (third from left) with New South Wales Premier Chris Minns (third from right) and other officials as they prepare to leave flowers outside the Westfield Bondi Junction mall in Sydney on Sunday.