Forty-eight hours after the attack, investigators began to identify the first leads. Australian police said Monday they were investigating why the stabbing attacker who killed six people and injured several others on Saturday in a Sydney shopping center appears to have targeted women as a priority. Five of the six victims killed by Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old mentally ill man, are women, as are most of those injured.
"It's obvious to me, and to the investigators, that this is a point of interest: the attacker focused on women and avoided men," said Karen Webb, Nova Scotia Police Commissioner. South Wales on national broadcaster ABC. “The videos speak for themselves, don’t they,” she noted, referring to “a lead in the investigation.” Videos posted on social media show the attacker pursuing mainly women in the heart of the crowded Westfield shopping center in Bondi Junction.
“Worrying”
But Karen Webb stressed that police could not presume the attacker's thoughts at the time. “We don't know what was going on in the attacker's mind and that's why it's important for inspectors to spend as much time questioning people who know him, who were around him, who were close to him », She justified, quoted by the television channel’s website. “That way we can get an idea of what he might have been thinking. »
For his part, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese indicated that he had spoken with the families of several victims. “The gender of the victims is of course worrying,” he told ABC radio, promising an “exhaustive” police investigation.
The last of the six victims of this attack was identified on Monday as Yixuan Cheng, a young Chinese student at the University of Sydney. The other women killed were a fashion designer, a volunteer surf lifesaver, the daughter of an entrepreneur and a mother whose critically injured nine-month-old baby is in hospital. Ashlee Good, 38, left her bleeding baby daughter in the care of strangers before being rushed to hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. The only man killed was Faraz Tahir, a 30-year-old Pakistani who worked as a security guard and tried to intervene, according to authorities.
After a half-hour rampage of violence, the attacker was chased and shot dead by a police officer, Amy Scott, hailed for her heroism. Eight people injured in the attack remain hospitalized, some in critical condition. Four other injured people were released from hospital.
“A very sick boy”
According to his Facebook profile, Joel Cauchi is from Toowoomba, near Brisbane in the east of the country, and attended high school and university in the area. His parents said he had suffered from mental illness since he was a teenager. After the attack, they called their son's actions "truly horrible" and expressed solidarity with the victims. “We are still trying to understand what happened,” they said in a statement. They also sent a message to the policewoman who killed their son. “She was just doing her job to protect others and we hope she does well.”
His father said he did “everything in (his) power” to help his son treat his mental health problems, in a video for The Australian newspaper. According to him, the forty-year-old had stopped taking medication “because he was doing very well, but then he left for Brisbane”. “He’s my son and I love a monster.” For you, he's a monster. To me, he was a very sick boy,” he said, looking completely distraught.
VIDEO. Australia: “several people” stabbed in a Sydney shopping center
Police say Joel Cauchi traveled to Sydney about a month ago and rented a small storage space which contained a few personal belongings, including a surfboard. Homeless, he lived in a vehicle and in youth hostels, and had only sporadic contact with his family.
In tribute to the victims, bouquets of flowers were left by the public in front of the Bondi shopping center. Flags across the country were lowered to half-mast as a sign of mourning. The Sydney Opera House will be lit with a black ribbon in the evening.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also denounced the spread of false information after the attack. On social networks, Internet users falsely attributed the attack to terrorism and an Australian television channel had to apologize for having wrongly identified a 20-year-old student as the author of the attack.