‘Obvious’ Sydney killer targeted women – Australian police

The man who went on a stabbing rampage in a Sydney shopping centre appears to have targeted women, police say.

Joel Cauchi, 40, sent the crowded Westfield Bondi Junction complex into panic on Saturday when he began stabbing people with a long blade.

Five of the six people who died were women. Several others, including a baby, were injured.

The New South Wales police commissioner told Australia’s ABC News that it was “obvious” Mr Cauchi focused on women.

The man killed was security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, who tried to intervene in the attack.

“The videos speak for themselves, don’t they?” commissioner Karen Webb told ABC News Breakfast.

“It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives… that the offender focused on women and avoided the men.

“We don’t know what was operating in the mind of the offender and that’s why it’s important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday also told ABC News “the gender breakdown is, of course, concerning”.

Authorities previously said the attack was most likely “related to the mental health” of Cauchi, who was shot dead by a lone police officer on Saturday.

He was already known to police but had never been arrested or charged in his home state Queensland. He had lived itinerantly for several years and was first diagnosed with a mental illness at 17, Queensland Police said.

The attack – at one of the country’s biggest and most popular shopping centres – has shocked Australia, where mass killings are rare.

Flags across the nation will be flown at half-mast on Monday and the sails of Sydney Opera House will be lit up in tribute to the victims.

Crowds of mourners have also flocked to Bondi Junction, leaving flowers and cards to those killed in the attack.

Ashlee Good, 38, was stabbed while trying to protect her nine-month-old baby girl, who was also injured and rushed to surgery. She is now stable and doing well, the family said on Sunday.

Police have also named architect Jade Young, 47, and 55-year-old Pikria Darchia as victims, while Dawn Singleton, 25, has been identified by local media.

The Chinese consulate in Sydney has said that the fifth female victim – the only one not to be named – is a Chinese citizen.