Australian police shoot dead ‘radicalised’ teenager after knife attack in Perth
- Western Australia Premier Roger Cook said the boy ‘rushed’ at police after wounding someone and was fatally shot by an officer
- Police said the attacker had been part of a ‘countering violence extremism programme’ for people who show signs of ‘religious or issues-motivated’ concerns
Western Australian police shot and killed a “radicalised” 16-year-old boy with a knife who stabbed a man in a Perth car park, police and the state premier said on Sunday.
The teenager “rushed” at police who responded by shooting him twice with tasers before firing a single fatal shot, they said.
“There are indications he had been radicalised online. But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears he acted solely and alone,” Premier Roger Cook said.
Police had received a call late on Saturday from a male warning that he was going to commit “acts of violence” but without giving his name or location, the state’s police commissioner, Col Blanch, told reporters.
Within minutes, another emergency call alerted police that a “male with a knife was running around the car park” in Willetton, a southern suburb of Perth, he said.
Police body camera images showed the teenager refused officers’ demands that he put down the knife, the police chief said.