Australian police shot dead a teenage boy after he stabbed an injured a man in an attack that had the “hallmarks” of terror, authorities said.
The teenager, described as a 16-year-old Caucasian male, was armed with a knife when he carried out the attack in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia (WA) Premier Roger Cook said.
WA police commissioner Col Blanch said that the attack “has the hallmarks” of a terrorist act, adding that it “meets the criteria or at least the definition” of this type of crime.
Blanch said that on Saturday night, local police received a call from a male indicating that “he was going to commit acts of violence.”
Police received another call from a person minutes later stating that a man with a knife was running around, Blanch continued. Police immediately responded to that call, he said, and three officers were dispatched.
When the officers arrived at the scene, they were confronted by the teen, who was alone and holding a “large kitchen knife,” Blanch said.
The officers ordered him to put down the knife, but the suspect refused, instead rushing the police. Two tasers were deployed and when they failed to subdue him, the third officer “fired a single shot and fatally wounded the male,” Blanch continued.
Police discovered after the shooting that the teen had stabbed and injured a middle aged man prior to his confrontation with the police.
The victim is currently in hospital in a serious but stable condition with a wound in his back, Blanch said.
The teen was known to the police prior to the incident, Blanch said, as “he was part of a program about online radicalization for the last couple of years.”
“We are dealing with complex issues with this 16 year old male, both mental health issues but also online radicalization issues,” Blanch said.
The program focused on covering violent extremism for those that are exhibiting concerning behavior, Blanch said.
Blanch said police received multiple calls both before and after the incident from members of Western Australia’s Muslim community who had concerns about the individual.
“I do want to thank members of the Muslim community who did that because that enabled us to identify rapidly who this individual was and respond as [quickly] as we did,” Blanch said.
In a statement released Sunday regarding the incident, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia.”
The incident comes after last month’s stabbing of a priest and bishop at a church in Sydney. Police have arrested a 16-year-old over the attack, which they described as a terrorist act.