Police have ruled out the theory that Westfield Bondi Junction knifeman Joel Cauchi was specifically targeting women in his shopping center stabbing spree.
Six people, five women and a security guard, died when Cauchi, 40, attacked people with a 30cm knife on April 13.
A nine-month-old girl was one of 12 other people who were stabbed before the man was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said after the gender pattern of the attack became clear.
“It’s obvious to me… The offender targeted the women and avoided the men,” Commissioner Webb told the ABC on April 15.
However, a month after the attack, there is debate within the New South Wales police about that theory.
A senior police source was skeptical, noting that Cauchi also stabbed men, but not fatally.
Police are no longer convinced Bondi Junction Westfield knifeman Joel Cauchi (pictured) was targeting women when he went on a violent stabbing spree.
The victims in the top row from LR: Yixuan Cheng, 27, Ashlee Good, 38, and Pikria Darchia, 55. Bottom row from LR: Jade Young, 47, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30.
‘Do I think he was targeting women? No, i do not do it. “She stabbed three men and a baby, she just went around stabbing people,” the source told the Daily Telegraph.
Those killed in the attack were new mother Ashlee Good, 38, bride-to-be Dawn Singleton, 25, security guard Faraz Ahmed Tahir, 30, architect Jade Young, 47, artist Pikria Darchia, 55, and economics student Yixuan Cheng, 27. .
However, another police source previously told the Daily Telegraph that investigators believe Cauchi was “definitely targeting women”.
The source said police had seen extensive footage of Cauchi’s movements throughout the mall and had observed him selecting his victims.
“I don’t think there’s any other way to look at it,” the source said.
‘You can see in the images that he passes by other people. He continues walking past them and then attacks a woman.
Cauchi, a schizophrenic from Queensland, had moved to Sydney just weeks before the attack and had no fixed address at the time.
He was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and his parents said he had stopped taking the medication that had triggered his psychosis.
Cauchi’s father, Andrew, had suggested his son had targeted women at the mall because he wanted a girlfriend.
Cauchi’s father Andrew previously suggested his son (pictured) had targeted women at the shopping center because he wanted a girlfriend.
Just days after the attack, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb (pictured) said it was “obvious” to her that Cauchi had been targeting female shoppers.
“He wanted a girlfriend and he has no social skills and he was very frustrated,” Anthony said. A current issue.
Cauchi had lived at his parents’ home in Toowoomba until he was 35.
His father recalled discovering five large US Army combat knives in his bag when he visited the house in 2023, which he quickly confiscated.
“I told him, ‘Look, Joel, you can stay at my house, but you won’t have these knives here,'” Andrew said.
“I took them off him and it was hell, you know, really hell… he went crazy.”
Podcaster Abbie Chatfield said she believed the objectification of women and Australia’s terrible mental health system were causes of the attack.
‘This violence does not start from nowhere. “This starts when people continually talk about women as if they are objects,” she said.
‘This objectification of women allows the dehumanization of women, and that allows men to easily fall down a slippery slope towards violence.
“Whether it’s domestic violence, domestic violence, verbal abuse, catcalling, sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, murder, mass murder.”