Police shot dead a “radicalized” 16-year-old who stabbed a man in a parking lot.
The teenager injured the victim, 30, before “running” towards police and being hit by a Taser and then fatally shot last night in Perth, Australia.
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Prime Minister Roger Cook said: “There are indications that he had been radicalized online. But I want to reassure the community at this time that it appears that he acted solely and exclusively.”
Late Saturday, police received a call from a man warning them that he was going to commit “acts of violence,” but did not give his name or location.
Within minutes, another emergency call alerted police that “a man with a knife was running through the parking lot” of a hardware store in Willetton, a suburb south of Perth.
Police Commissioner Col Blanch said police body camera footage showed the teenager refused officers’ demands that he put down the knife.
The weapon was a one-foot kitchen knife, believed to be from the attacker’s home, he said.
The officers fired two Tasers at him, but “none of them had the desired effect,” he added.
“The man continued to advance toward the third officer with a firearm, who fired a single shot, fatally wounding the man.”
The teen died at the hospital that same night, he said.
The victim who had been stabbed was in a “serious” but stable condition and appeared to be fine, the police commissioner said.
The man had suffered a single stab wound, “possibly” two centimeters, which could have punctured a lung, he said.
Police believe the teen sent “relevant messages” to some members of the Muslim community, who immediately called police, he said, without giving details of the messages.
The boy had “mental problems but also online radicalization problems,” the police chief said.
Over the past two years, the attacker had been part of a “counter-violent extremism program” for people who show signs of “religiously or motivated” concerns, he said.
“It’s not a criminal approach, but rather a program to help people who express ideologies that are of concern to our community. But they may not be committing a crime.”
Police said they did not know what triggered the attack.
Blanch said it had the “hallmarks” of a terrorist incident, but was not making an official statement at this time because he was not concerned that a broader network was involved.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been informed by police and intelligence services that 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 social media message.
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