WA’s top cop says a radicalised teen’s random stabbing attack on a man won’t officially be declared a terrorist incident at this time.

May 7, 2024

A radicalised teenager’s random stabbing attack on a man won’t officially be declared a terrorist incident at this time, Western Australian police say.

Officers returned to the 16-year-old’s Perth school on Tuesday to reassure the community amid reports of a fresh safety threat, which turned out to be a hoax.

A Muslim community says Islamophobic rhetoric was appearing online in the wake of the incident that ended when police shot the boy dead after he rushed at them with a large knife on Saturday.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch says the incident meets the definition of a terrorist act.

“As a terrorist act, it meets the definition because of the message he sent out prior to that,” he told reporters.

In the minutes before he stabbed the man in his 30s in the back, the teen called triple-zero threatening “acts of violence” and reportedly sent a text message to multiple people saying: “I am going on the path of jihad tonight for the sake of Allah.”

But Commissioner Blanch said the attack did not need to be declared a terrorist incident because no charges would be laid and police did not currently need the additional powers that came with the designation.

“If that changes and more information does come to hand, I may need to declare a terrorist incident or a terrorist act to use those powers,” he said.

Commissioner Blanch said the investigation into the stabbing and fatal shooting was ongoing as detectives worked to determine what the boy’s motive was.

“Two years in our countering violent extremism program (and) he wasn’t doing that,” he said.

“Something happened that night that we have to determine what that was and we don’t know.”

Commissioner Blanch said there was no intelligence to suggest other people were involved in the knife attack.

He also dismissed suggestions that an online video showing the boy throwing a homemade bomb into a toilet at his school was evidence of a serious threat.

“It was two years ago, he was 14 years old (and) he was in the company of other kids, but it did help us do the referral into the voluntary (de-radicalisation) program,” he said.

“That was the trigger.”

Fear escalated among the dead teen’s school community overnight after a series of threatening messages were purportedly written by a student on the school’s online discussion forum but it was short-lived.

“Our investigations have determined that there was a hacked account and so it was a false message,” Commissioner Blanch said.

“It probably speaks to the harm of social media … when messages like that go out.”

The WA Department of Education has defended its handling of the boy, who had mental health issues, after it was revealed the concerned parents of another student at his school had sent a letter to the education minister, which was passed on to the department.

The boy shot by police had an individual management plan from 2022 that included behaviour rules, monitoring of school attendance and online activity, routine check-ins to authorities and extensive psychological support, Director General Lisa Rodgers said.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Imam Syed Wadood Janud said the teen’s text messages before the stabbing – which reportedly also included the statement “I am a soldier of the mujahideen of Al-Qaeda” – were extremely concerning.

He said such statements misinterpreted Islamic terminology and could have implications for the public’s perception of the religion.

“It’s extremely frustrating for us,” he said.

Imam Wadood Janud said Islamophobic rhetoric was appearing online in the wake of the attack and that the teen had not attended Perth mosques.

“Whatever he had learned, unfortunately, was online,” he said.

“We all know that this information available online can be extremely misleading.”