A man who went on a stabbing spree in a popular Sydney mall may have been targeting women, police say.
Joel Cauchi, 40, was shot dead by a responding officer after stabbing at least 14 people — mostly women — during his afternoon rampage at Bondi Westfield.
“It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives that seems to be an area of interest that the offender focused on women and avoided the men,” New South Wales police Commissioner Karen Webb told ABC News Breakfast.
“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, were around him, close to him.
“So we can get some insight into what he might have been thinking.”
Five of the six people stabbed to death were women. Several others, including a baby, were injured.
Authorities had previously said the attack was related to Cauchi’s “mental health” and that he was already known to police but had never been arrested or charged in his home state Queensland.
Cauchi had lived from place to place for several years and had been diagnosed with an unconfirmed mental illness at 17, Queensland police revealed in the wake of the massacre.
Victims have been identified by friends and family members:
- Pikria Darchia, a 55-year-old female artist and designer
- Ashlee Good, 38, a new mom who worked as a physical therapist
- Dawn Singleton, 25, a female ecommerce assistant whose father is millionaire entrepreneur John Singleton
- Jade Young, 47, an architect and mother of two
- Yixuan Cheng, 24, a female Chinese national studying in Australia
- Faraz Tahir, 30, a male security guard who was killed protecting shoppers
NSW Police confirmed that of the 18 people stabbed, 14 of them were women. Nine women and Good’s young child remain in the hospital.
Cauchi’s family on Sunday condemned his behavior calling the savagery “truly horrific.”
