A radicalized teenager shot dead by police reportedly referenced Palestine and warned he was going to kill all the men in the vicinity during a triple-0 call in its harrowing final minutes.
The teenager, identified by his first name ‘James’, stabbed a man in the car park of Willetton Bunnings, south of Perth, on Saturday night.
Armed with a large knife, he lunged at three police officers, who then shot the boy dead after they failed to stop him with Tasers.
It has since been reported that five minutes before the incident, James called police and made references to the federal government’s support for Israel.
James also stated that he intended to kill all the men in the surrounding area, Western Australia reported.
Western Australia Police Commissioner Colonel Blanch said it was still unknown whether the war in Gaza may have motivated the teenager.
James reportedly made references to Palestine and warned that he was going to kill all the men in a triple call 0 minutes before his death.
The teenager, identified as ‘James’ (pictured several years ago), stabbed a man in the car park of Willetton Bunnings in Perth’s south on Saturday night before police shot him dead.
“I think that is the subject of the investigation at this time, is what led him to take those actions that night,” Commissioner Blanch said Tuesday.
“Something happened that night and we have to determine what it was and we don’t know.”
He remains confident that James acted alone.
“We have no intelligence that says anyone is connected to him in relation to those actions… I’m sure at this point in the investigation that he was acting alone,” Commissioner Blanch said.
Although the police have not yet designated the incident as a terrorist act despite its “characteristics”, it has not been ruled out that it may occur in the future.
“It meets the definition of a terrorist act,” added Commissioner Blanch.
On Tuesday there was a heavy police presence at the teenager’s mother’s home.
Police confiscated some of the boy’s phones and other electronic devices.
His family were said to be “extremely emotional.”
It comes after police were forced to investigate threats to Rossmoyne Senior High School, where James was a student, after threats of violence were made online, which were later found to be a hoax.
The disturbing messages were sent through the school’s internal forum for students and teachers on Monday night.
It has now emerged that about five minutes before James (pictured) stabbed the man, he called the police and made references to the Australian government’s support for Israel and also said he intended to kill all the men in the surroundings.
They include: “All I say is Allahu Ahkbar, I will kill the n……tomorrow” and “the reason I threw up gang signs in my photos is because I always planned to shoot myself in school and f…everyone the n…… c… are all going to be punished for what they told me at school, we will prevail.’
WA Police Minister Paul Papalia has since confirmed the messages were a sick joke.
The school’s principal, Alan Brown, had previously called the messages a “hoax” and attributed them to a “hacking incident.”
“As many of you know, there are some inappropriate messages circulating among students and in the community,” he said in an email Tuesday, obtained by The West.
‘It has been confirmed that there has been a hacking incident and the messages do not come from any students.
“Police have been notified and are investigating the matter and have confirmed that there is no additional threat to the school or our students.”
Several parents chose to keep their children home from school Tuesday after the messages.
Six police cars and several officers were seen outside the school on Tuesday morning.
“My son is not at school today and a lot of his friends are scared,” one parent told Nine News.
A second mother added: “It shouldn’t come to something like this for them to have to do something.”
‘They are [students] They’re genuinely afraid, they just don’t understand what’s going to happen next.’
A series of disturbing messages (pictured) were posted on the school’s internal forum on Monday night.
The messages (pictured) threatened to ‘shoot up’ the school but the principal has declared them a hoax
Several police officers attended the school (pictured) on Tuesday morning and assured parents and students that there was no ongoing threat.
One parent, leaving a meeting with the school principal, told reporters that authorities would not tell parents whether other youths who are part of a known extremist group attended the school or where they were located.
“The Department of Education will not give that information,” he said.
The parents said they had been told the school had done everything possible to ensure the safety of the students and that it was “no cause for concern” that the student had remained at school after a homemade bomb was detonated, destroying a block. of bathrooms.
“We had a known extremist bring a bomb to the school,” he said.
“They knew he was an extremist before the bomb, he had been an extremist in a program for about four years, the bomb happened last year.”
He said students at the high school and other nearby schools felt scared and that if authorities waited until something happened to act, it would be too late.
It also emerged on Tuesday that a group of parents had warned that a Muslim prayer room at the school was being used to spread extremist ideologies.
The parents of a Rossmoyne student have written to Western Australia’s Education Minister Tony Buti and other elected officials to express fears about attempts by other students to radicalize their son, just a month before the teenager’s attack. The Australian reported.
The 16-year-old was shot dead by police in Perth on Saturday after stabbing a man in the back (pictured, emergency services at the scene)
They also expressed concern that a group of Muslim converts at the school were using a dedicated prayer room as a meeting place to try to recruit more children after finding a series of text messages on their son’s phone.
The family has since started an online petition calling for the removal of prayer rooms from all WA public schools, describing them as “divisive, exclusionary and contrary to the principles of secular education”.
“This practice not only undermines the diverse fabric of our society but also violates the fundamental rights of students to receive an education free of religious influence,” the petition said.
“Furthermore, the promotion of religious activities in public schools perpetuates social divisions and contributes to the alienation and marginalization of certain religious and cultural groups, thus fostering religious radicalization among impressionable students.”
The petition has since garnered more than 600 signatures.
Shortly before he was shot dead, James sent a final message to people saying he was going down “the path of jihad”, and members of Perth’s concerned Islamic community alerted police to the messages.
“Brothers, please forgive me for any time I have wronged you. Tonight I will follow the path of jihad in the cause of Allah,” wrote James, who had reportedly converted to Islam.
“I am a soldier of the Al Qaeda mujahideen and I take responsibility for the actions that… will take place tonight.”
A man in his 30s, unknown to the teenager, was taken to hospital in serious condition with back injuries.
He also warned his contacts to “delete” incriminating evidence from devices such as laptops and phones.
“If you have illegal or jihadi stuff online or in real life, make sure you hide it well and clean your technology such as laptops and phones, including search history… as the police will probably investigate my contacts,” James wrote .
The teenager had reportedly attempted to indoctrinate other students and was filmed in 2022 throwing a small homemade explosive device into a toilet block at the school.
That incident led him to spend more than two years in a “deradicalization” program.
