Police shoot ‘radicalized’ teenager dead after stabbing man

The teenager attacked the man and then charged at police officers before being shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters on Sunday.

“There are indications that he has been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference.

“But I would like to reassure the community that at this stage it appears he acted solely and alone,” he added.

A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back. He was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition, a police statement said.

Police and officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) have been conducting a counter-terrorism investigation in the east coast city of Sydney since another 16-year-old boy stabbed an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest in a church on April 15.

That boy has been charged with committing a terrorist act. Six of his alleged associates have also been charged with a range of criminal offences, including conspiring or planning an act of terrorism. They all remain in custody.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was briefed on the latest stabbing in Perth by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and ASIO director-general Mike Burgess, who heads the country’s top domestic spy agency.

“I have been informed that based on the available information there is no ongoing threat to the community,” Mr Albanese said.

“We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia,” he added.

Police received a 911 call after 10pm from a teenager who said he was going to commit violent crimes, Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch said.

The boy had taken part in a program for young people at risk of radicalisation, Blanch added.

“I don’t want to say he has been radicalized or radicalized because I think that’s part of the investigation,” he said.

Police said they were later alerted by a phone call from a member of the public that a knife attack was underway in the car park.

Three police officers responded, one armed with a handgun and two with Tasers.

Police deployed both Tasers but were unable to disable the boy before he was killed by a single shot, Blanch said.

Mr Blanch said members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with police about the boy’s behavior before he was killed on Saturday.

The imam of Perth’s largest mosque, the Nasir Mosque, condemned the stabbing.

“There is no place for violence in Islam,” Imam Syed Wadood Janud said in a statement.

“We appreciate the efforts of law enforcement to keep our communities safe. I would also like to commend the local Muslim community who had previously reported the person to the police,” Mr Wadood added.

Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for labeling last month’s church stabbing as a terrorist act, but not a disaster two days earlier at a Sydney shopping center that killed six people and injured a dozen.

The 40-year-old attacker in the attack on the shopping center was shot dead by police. Police have not yet released the man’s motive.

The church attack is only the third to be classified as a terrorist act by Australian authorities since 2018.

In December 2022, three Christian fundamentalists shot dead two police officers and a bystander in an ambush near the community of Wieambilla in Queensland state. The attackers were later killed by police.

In November 2018, a Somali-born Muslim stabbed three pedestrians in central Melbourne, killing one, before police shot him dead.