Bondi Knife Attacker Named, May Have Deliberately Targeted Women

Police have named 40-year-old Joel Cauchi as the man responsible for killing six people in a stabbing spree at a Sydney shopping mall yesterday. They said Cauchi moved to Sydney from Queensland a month ago and had a history of mental-health problems. He was living in a vehicle at the time of the attack.

The killer’s family have now issued a statement via the police, in which they express their shock and devastation, and offer their support for the victims and their loved ones.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims and those still undergoing treatment at this time,” they said.

“Joel’s actions were truly horrific, and we are still trying to comprehend what has happened. He has battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.

“We are in contact with both the New South Wales Police Force and Queensland Police Service and have no issues with the Police Officer who shot our son as she was only doing her job to protect others and we hope she is coping alright.”

Although there was some initial speculation on social media that the attack might be terror-related, as we reported yesterday, police are now considering the possibility that Cauchi deliberately targeted women.

Cauchi killed five women and one man. New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said that “at least eight” of the 12 people injured in the attack were women.

The women killed were 47-year-old Jade Young, 25-year-old Dawn Singleton, 38-year-old Ashlee Good, and two other women who have not been named. Faraz Tahir, 30, a security guard, was the lone man killed.

Webb told reporters that the gender of the majority of Cauchi’s victims would be “an obvious line of inquiry.”

 “And that’s concerning, but that will form part of the investigation.

“I mean, anyone seeing that footage can see that for themselves.”

Webb’s colleague, the assistant commissioner, sounded a more cautious note about the killer’s motivations.

“We are continuing to work through the profiling of the offender but very clearly to us at this stage it will appear related to the mental health of the individual,” the NSW police assistant commissioner, Anthony Cooke, said.

“There is still to this point nothing—no information we have received, no evidence we’ve recovered, no intelligence that we have gathered—that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation, ideology or otherwise.”

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