'Radicalized' 16-year-old shot dead by police in Australia
PERTH
Western Australian police shot and killed a "radicalized" 16-year-old boy with a knife who had stabbed a man in a Perth car park, police and the state premier said on Sunday.
The teenager "rushed" at police who responded by shooting him twice with Tasers before firing a single fatal shot, they said.
"There are indications he had been radicalized online. But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears he acted solely and alone," Premier Roger Cook said.
Police received a call late on May 4 from a male warning that he was going to commit "acts of violence" but without giving his name or location, the state's police commissioner, Col Blanch, told reporters.
Within minutes, another emergency call alerted police that a "male with a knife was running around the car park" in Willetton, a southern suburb of Perth, he said.
Police body camera images showed the teenager refused officers' demands that he put down the knife, the police chief said.
The weapon was a 30-centimeter kitchen knife, believed to be from the attacker's home, he said.
Officers fired two Tasers at him but "both of them did not have the full desired effect," he said.
"The male continued to advance on the third officer with a firearm who fired a single shot and fatally wounded the male."
The teenager died in hospital later in the night, he said.
The "middle-aged" man who had been stabbed was in a "serious" but stable condition and appeared to be doing well, the police commissioner said.
Police believe the teenager sent "relevant messages" to some members of the Muslim community who immediately called police, he said, without giving details of the messages.
The boy had "mental issues but also online radicalization issues," the police chief said.
