40 years old, long history of mental problems and no extremist ties. This is the profile released by the Australian authorities of Joel Cauchi. The attacker who broke into a Sydney shopping center armed with a knife measuring more than 30 centimeters left behind six dead and 12 injured. Among them a nine-month-old baby.
A native of the neighboring state of Queensland, Cauchi led a peripatetic lifestyle, sleeping occasionally in his car, and having little contact with his mother through text messages.
The aggressor, who was killed by a police officer, moved to Sydney a month ago where he rented "a small" warehouse in which no clues have been found linking the attack with any type of ideological motivation: "Until this moment there is still no "We have nothing, no information that we have received, no evidence that we have recovered or intelligence information that we have collected that suggests that this was driven by any type of extremist or other ideology in particular" (...) "It would seem that it is related with the mental health of the individual involved," has determined the assistant commissioner of the Police of the Australian state of New South Wales, Anthony Cooke.
However, the scrutiny of his social networks has made it possible to locate different posts in two separate Facebook groups from 2020 for which Cauchi had been looking for "groups of people who shoot weapons, including pistols, to meet, chat and get to know each other."
Cauchi had also uploaded a profile on a website for escort boys where he requested sex work. And on the eve of the attack he uploaded a post to Facebook commenting on his willingness to meet strangers to surf at the popular Bondi Beach.
After observing the images broadcast on television, it was Cauchi's own family that contacted the police: "They thought it was their son and quickly contacted the authorities," explained Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Roger Lowe. .
The family says they are devastated and have extended their condolences to the victims: "Joel's actions were truly horrible and we are still trying to understand what happened," the family said in a statement. "He has struggled with mental health issues since he was a teenager."
According to yesterday's police report, the assailant entered the popular Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center at 3:10 p.m. local time (5:10 GMT) on Saturday, left shortly after and returned about ten minutes later, when he attacked with a knife. To several people.
The injuries caused the immediate death of four women and a man, while another stabbed woman died hours later in the hospital, and left twelve others injured, including a nine-month-old baby.
Some shoppers and staff at Sydney's eastern shopping center tried to stop him and the crowd took shelter in closed shops. After receiving the alert call, a police inspector went to the scene, where she confronted the aggressor, who turned towards her with a knife in his hand, so the agent "fired a firearm" at him.
