Police are scrutinising Bondi Junction killer Joel Cauchi’s movements in the lead-up to his horrific knife attack on 18 people, including two visits to other Westfield shopping centres he may have planned to target.
Westfield Bondi Junction remains closed today after Cauchi killed six people and wounded at least 12 more with a hunting knife on a busy Saturday afternoon at the centre, before NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott shot him dead.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb addresses the media beside Premier Chris Minns on Tuesday morning.Credit: Louise Kennerley
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said police were looking into reports Cauchi had visited Westfield centres in Parramatta and Penrith before the Bondi mass stabbing, potentially scoping out alternative locations to attack.
“I’ve heard those reports myself and we will be looking at all of those angles,” Webb said on Tuesday morning at a press conference.
Webb said police were piecing together his movements and were delving “into his childhood to get a better understanding of what he was thinking”.
“I’ve made it also clear we may not ever get an answer, but we will get a picture of his movements and what he’d been doing in and around New South Wales and in Sydney in particular,” she said.
Andrew Cauchi (left) spoke to the media on Monday after his son Joel Cauchi (right) fatally stabbed multiple people in Bondi Junction on Saturday.Credit:
Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 17. His anguished parents said on Monday they believed his mental health began to deteriorate when he moved out of home about five years ago and wound back his medication.
“My heart goes out to the people he has hurt,” mother Michele Cauchi said. “If he was in his right mind he would be absolutely devastated by what he has done.”
Cauchi had a fascination with knives and, his father Andrew said, a reason to potentially target women. “Because he wanted a girlfriend,” Andrew Cauchi said. “And he’s got no social skills. He was frustrated out of his brain.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stressed the investigation into Cauchi’s motive was ongoing.
“What we know is that violence against women is far too prevalent,” he said on ABC radio.
“On average, more than once a week a woman dies in the hands of someone that they know. That’s a scourge that we as a society, governments have a role to play, but the community has a role to play as well. People talking with their mates have a role to play as well.”
Speaking on the Bondi attack, as well as the terrorism incident on Monday night that sparked a near-riot in Sydney’s west, Albanese urged the public not to speculate.
“We saw on Saturday the problem when people second-guess and make declarations … some of which were just completely wrong and completely untrue and distressing,” he said.
Ben Cohen, a 20-year-old student at the University of Technology Sydney, was wrongly named as the Bondi Junction killer by social media trolls and the Seven Network in the hours after the attack.
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