Police in the Australian state of New South Wales are investigating whether the multiple stabbing committed last Saturday in a Sydney shopping center, in which seven people died, including the attacker, was a femicide. Five of the six people killed were women, as were most of the injured.
"It's obvious to me, it's obvious to detectives that it seems to be an area of interest that the attacker has focused on women and avoided men," Police Commissioner Karen Webb said today in an interview with the Australian public broadcaster. , in which he noted that the majority of the injured people are also women.
In a statement, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese indicated today that flags are flying at half-mast in Parliament and other institutions in the country as a sign of mourning for the tragic incident.
Videos captured at the crime scene with cell phones show that Australian Joel Cauchi, 40, diagnosed with schizophrenia, deliberately sought to attack women and children and avoided men in that incident that occurred last Saturday in the center Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center in a popular eastern Sydney neighbourhood.
"We don't know what was operating in the attacker's mind and that's why it's important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him, were around him and were close to him. So we can get an idea of what might have been going on. thinking," said the police chief, clarifying that the alleged attacker's schizophrenia problems will be addressed by the coroner.
The women who died in the incident are Ashlee Good, a 38-year-old woman who, badly injured after being stabbed and aware that she could not take care of her baby, approached a stranger and handed him the little girl, who had also been stabbed. .
Dawn Singleton, a 25-year-old daughter of millionaire Australian businessman John Singleton, also perished; Jade Young, a 47-year-old woman; Pikri Darchia, a 55-year-old designer; as well as Chinese citizen Yixuan Cheng. Faraz Tahir, a Pakistani man who worked as a security guard, was also killed.
Likewise, about twelve people were treated in Sydney hospitals, of which eight are still hospitalized, including Good's baby, who underwent emergency surgery and whose situation has gone from "critical" to "stable", according to official sources. .
The attacker died after a police inspector went to the scene in response to a warning call, where she confronted the attacker, who turned towards her with a knife in his hand, so the agent "fired a firearm." " against him, without him being able to be revived before the arrival of the paramedics.
