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 is obvious to me, and to investigators, that this is a point of interest: the attacker focused on women and avoided men
,” said New Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb. of the South on the national television channel ABC.
“The videos speak for themselves, don’t they
,” she noted, referring to
“a lead in the investigation
. ”
Videos posted on social media showed the attacker chasing mostly women during his attack at the crowded Westfield shopping center in Bondi Junction on Saturday. But Karen Webb stressed that police could not know what was going through the attacker's mind.
“That’s why it’s important that investigators spend time interviewing those who know him
. ”
Joel Cauchi's Facebook profile indicates that he is from Toowoomba, near Brisbane (East), and that he attended high school and university in the area. His parents said he had suffered from mental illness since he was a teenager.
Chinese victim identified
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 young mother whose critically injured nine-month-old baby is in hospital. The mother, 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. Eight people injured in the attack remain hospitalized, some in critical condition. Four other injured people were released from hospital. After a half-hour rampage of violence, the attacker was chased and shot dead by a police officer, Amy Scott, hailed for her heroism. Joel Cauchi's parents 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
. ”
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.
Tributes to the victims
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 said 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 prime minister 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.