Boy shot dead after stabbing in Perth was part of a de-radicalization program but no links to Sydney teenager have been found

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 16-year-old boy shot by police after stabbing a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth was participating in a de-radicalization program but had no ties to a suspected network of youth extremists in the eastern coastal city of Sydney, the authorities said.

The boy had participated in the government-funded program to combat violent extremism for two years but had no criminal record, Western Australia Police Minister Paul Papalia said on Monday.

“The challenge we face with people like the 16-year-old in this incident is that he is known to hold dangerous views and could potentially be radicalized,” Papalia said. “But the problem with such people is that they act at short notice without warning and can be very dangerous.”

Regarding the possibility of the boy’s radicalization, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was concerned about the spread of extreme positions on social media.

“It’s a dynamic that’s not just a problem for the government. It is an issue for our entire society, be it violent extremism, misogyny and violence against women. This is an issue that obviously concerns me,” Albanese told reporters.

Western Australia Police Commissioner Colonel Blanch said the boy called police late on Saturday and said he was about to commit “acts of violence” but did not say where. Minutes later, a citizen reported to police that he saw the boy with a knife in the parking lot of a hardware store.

Three police officers responded, one with a gun and two with stun guns. Police used both stun guns but were unable to incapacitate the boy before he was killed by a single shot, Blanch said.

The stabbing victim was a man in his 30s who was injured in the back. Police said he was in a serious but stable condition at a Perth hospital.

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 boy had said in a text message to staff: “For Allah’s sake I am embarking on the path of jihad tonight,” the Australian Associated Press reported, prompting several to alert police.

Police said the stabbing had the hallmarks of a terrorist attack but did not declare it as such. Factors that may influence this decision include whether the state police require federal resources, including the Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s domestic spy agency.

Blanch said the Western Australia Police Force’s investigation did not require additional federal funding and he was confident the situation was different to Sydney.

“We deal with complex issues, both mental health issues and online radicalization issues,” Blanch said on Sunday. “But we believe he is largely acting alone and we have no concerns at this time that there is an existing network or other concerns that may have been observed in Sydney.”

Western Australia Premier Roger Cook said his government and the state education department were aware of concerns at the boy’s school about his behavior. Cook did not immediately respond to reports that several boys at Rossmoyne Senior High School, the prestigious state school he attended, were trying to radicalize classmates.

“I’ll leave that to the Department of Education to clarify,” Cook told reporters. “This young man harbored some extremist thoughts, which is why he participated in the program to combat violent extremism.”

Amanda Spencer-Teo, the mother of a Rossmoyne student, said “red flags” had been raised several times about the behavior of some students.

“Parents have been discussing this with the school for some time,” Spencer-Teo, who will stand as an opposition party candidate in next year’s state election, told The Australian newspaper. “The school and department failed to inform affected parents.”

In the April 15 knife attacks at a church in Sydney, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb declared the knife attacks on an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest a terrorist attack within hours. The arrested boy was later accused of committing a terrorist act. In the subsequent investigation, six other young people were charged with terrorist offenses.

Police alleged all seven were part of a network that “adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology.”

Some Muslim leaders have criticized Australian police for calling the stabbing two days earlier at a Sydney shopping center a terrorist attack rather than a shooting spree that left six people dead and a dozen injured.

The 40-year-old attacker who was shot dead by police had a history of schizophrenia and most of the victims he targeted were women. Police have not yet released any information about the man’s motive.