SYDNEY: Australian police on Monday (April 15) said the attacker who fatally stabbed six people at a busy shopping center in Sydney’s coastal suburb of Bondi may have targeted women, as the nation mourned the victims and hundreds laid flowers near the scene.
In Saturday’s attack, five of the six people killed and the majority of the 12 injured were women. Police said on Monday they had finished taking physical evidence at Westfield Bondi Junction mall.
“It was clear to me that the detectives were focused on women and avoided 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 question for us.”
Webb emphasized that police cannot know what was going through the attacker’s mind.
“That’s why it’s important now for detectives to spend so much time interviewing people who knew him.”
Witnesses described how attacker Joel Cauchi, 40, wearing shorts and an Australian national rugby league uniform, ran through the mall armed with a knife. He was killed by inspector Amy Scott, who confronted him alone during his rampage.
Police said Cauchi had experienced mental health problems and there was no indication ideology was a motive.
Violent crimes like Saturday’s stabbing are rare in the country of about 27 million people, which has some of the strictest gun and knife laws in the world.
Cauchi’s Facebook profile said he was from Toowoomba, near Brisbane, and had attended local high schools and universities.
The distinctive grey, red and yellow dragon tattoo on his right arm is used to help identify him.
“VERY TRAUMATIC”
The last of Cauchi’s six victims was identified on Monday as Yixuan Cheng, a young Chinese woman who was still a student.
The other women killed were a designer, a surf lifesaving volunteer, the daughter of a businessman, and a new mother whose nine-month-old baby was injured and is now in hospital.
The mother, 38-year-old Ashlee Good, handed her injured baby daughter to a stranger in despair before being rushed to hospital where she died from her injuries.
The baby, named Harriet, remains in a stable condition in a Sydney hospital, police said.
Good’s family described her as “a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all-around amazing human being and so much more.”
“To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee couldn’t – words cannot express our gratitude,” they said in a statement to Australian media.
The only man killed was 30-year-old Pakistani citizen Faraz Tahir, who was working as a security guard when he was stabbed.
Cauchi’s assault, which lasted about half an hour, ended when lone police inspector Scott shot him dead.
After the shooting, Scott – who was hailed as a hero – spent time with his family to overcome the “extremely traumatic issue,” the police chief said.
In a statement, Cauchi’s parents expressed their condolences to the victims and said their son’s actions were “truly appalling”.
“We are still trying to understand what happened. He has struggled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.”
“DOING HIS JOB”
His parents also sent a message to the officer who shot his son dead.
“He was just doing his job to protect others and we hope he survives well,” they said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had spoken to the families of some of the victims.
“The gender divide is of course concerning – every victim here is grieving,” he told ABC radio, promising a “comprehensive” police investigation.
Cauchi is believed to have traveled to Sydney about a month ago and rented a small storage unit in the city, according to police. It contained personal items, including a boogie board.
He lived in vehicles and hostels, and had only sporadic contact with his family via text messages, his parents said.
