Police informed that a 16-year-old boy, who had detonated a homemade explosive in a school two years ago, was fatally shot by officers in Perth after stabbing a man, reports the Associated Press. He had been participating in a deradicalisation programme before the incident.
In the parking lot of a hardware shop on Saturday night, May 4, the boy had injured a guy with a kitchen knife before being shot by police.
The boy had told associates in a text message: “I am going on the path of jihad tonight for the sake of Allah.”
Following two Assyrian Orthodox clerics were injured in a Sydney church and a Sydney shopping mall rampage, in which, six people were killed and another dozen were wounded — this was Australia's third high-profile knife crime in the past few weeks, reports Associated Press.
According to the Western Australia Police Commissioner Col Blanch, the teenager who was killed in Perth had been a participant in the Countering Violent Extremism programme since 2022.
The programme was federally funded and aimed to prevent young people from engaging in extremist activities. Unfortunately, the boy had caused an explosion at a toilet in the Rossmoyne Senior High School, where he was a student, states AP.
The Commissioner also revealed that the boy had received treatment for his mental health issues and his extremist inclinations.
“To be in a CVE programme automatically says that we have concerns about his behaviour and his thinking,” Blanch told Perth Radio 6PR.
“This is really important and it is highly successful but, sadly, it's not perfect,” Blanch added.
Social media video of the noise and flash of an explosion in a toilet and boys running from the scene has been published by news media outlets in recent days. The state education department said no one was injured and no damage was caused by the explosion.
According to a department statement, all appropriate procedures were followed when dealing with the 14-year-old teenager in cases where there were worries about extremism, reports AP.
Police investigated the explosion, but the boy wasn't charged, authorities said.
Police maintained a high-visibility presence around the school on Tuesday, May 7, to reassure the community after social media warned parents that a student had threatened more violence, Blanch said.
The warning came from a hacked social media account, Blanch said.
He urged the school community to contact police with any concerns rather than sharing those concerns through social media.
“Sending messages around and whipping up people's anxiety at a time of significant stress will not help anyone,” Blanch said.
The authorities in Western Australia found no connection between the boy from Perth and an alleged network of teenage extremists in Sydney, a city on Australia's east coast.
