Sydney attacker who stabbed 6 people to death identified

SYDNEY — Police on Sunday identified the attacker who stabbed and killed six people at a busy Sydney shopping center before an officer shot him dead.

New South Wales Police said Joel Cauchi, 40, was responsible for Saturday afternoon’s attack at the Westfield Shopping Center in Bondi Junction, in the city’s eastern suburbs and not far from the world-famous Bondi Beach.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters at a news conference on Sunday that Cauchi suffered from as-yet unspecified mental health issues and that police investigators were not treating the attack as terrorism-related.

“We continue to work on profiling the offender, but very clearly to us at this stage it appears this is related to the mental health of the individual involved,” Cooke said.

“There is still, at this point… no information that we have received, no evidence that we have recovered, no information that we have gathered that would suggest that this was motivated by any specific motivation – ideology or otherwise,” he added.

The attack on the shopping center, one of the busiest in the country and which was a center of activity on a particularly warm autumn afternoon, began at around 3:10 pm and the police were quickly called.

Six people – five women and one man, aged between 20 and 55 – were killed in the attack. Another 12 people were injured and remain hospitalized, including a 9-month-old child whose mother was killed in the attack.

The male victim was a security guard at the mall and was later identified as 30-year-old Faraz Tahir from Pakistan.

According to a written statement Sunday from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Australia, Faraz had been in Australia for less than a year and was a “beloved member of our community.”

Video footage taken by a witness showed many people running away as Cauchi, wielding a knife, ran erratically through the mall and attacked people.

“When I took my footage, it was about 15 seconds before he was shot by the police officer and he had already killed several people at that point, but we didn’t know and we had no idea what was going on,” said Rohan Anderson, who had entered the shopping mall moments before the attack. “We just saw a person on the level below us, with a knife, running and you sit there in disbelief that this is happening in Australia, in Bondi,” he said.

Other images showed a man confronting the attacker on an escalator at the mall, holding what appeared to be a metal pole.

Inspector Amy Scott, who was the first responder on the scene, shot and killed Cauchi.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the officer was “certainly a hero” whose actions saved many more lives.

“The wonderful inspector who ran into danger alone and eliminated the threat that existed to others, without thinking about the risks to herself,” he said.

“We also see images of ordinary Australians putting themselves in danger to help their fellow citizens. That was extraordinary bravery that we saw yesterday,” she added.

In a written statement Sunday, Cauchi’s family said they were devastated by Saturday’s events and had “no problem” with Scott shooting their son, saying “she was just doing her job to protect others.”

“Joel’s actions were truly horrific and we are still trying to understand what happened,” the statement read. “He has struggled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.”

Throughout Sunday, people placed large numbers of floral tributes to the victims outside the now-closed mall. Police say it will remain an active crime scene for days.