“Completely frustrated” – He wanted a girlfriend, says father of Sydney perpetrator
“To you, he’s a monster. For me he was a very sick boy”: Two days after the fatal knife attack in a Sydney shopping center, the perpetrator’s father spoke out. There is a reason why his son primarily targeted women.
NAfter the knife attack that left six people dead in a shopping center in the Australian metropolis of Sydney, the perpetrator’s father commented on a possible motive. The 76-year-old told journalists in front of his home in Toowoomba in the state of Queensland, about 870 kilometers from Sydney, that he knew why his son primarily targeted women: “Because he wanted a girlfriend, has no social skills and was completely frustrated.”
40-year-old Joel C. killed six people, including five women, in his attack on Saturday at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center, which is close to the world-famous Bondi Beach. A policewoman shot the attacker.
“He is my son and I love a monster,” said the perpetrator’s father about his son, who suffered from schizophrenia. “To you, he’s a monster. For me he was a very sick boy. Believe me, he was a very sick boy.”
Karen Webb, the police chief of the state of New South Wales, also commented on the possible motive. “It is obvious to me and to the investigators that this is an area of interest: the perpetrator targeted women and avoided men.” The police ruled out a terrorist background. She explained that the 40-year-old was mentally ill.
The only man killed in the attack was a Pakistani refugee who worked as a security guard at the mall. He was unarmed. More than a dozen other people were injured.
Most of the surviving victims were also women. Eight of them were still in hospital on Monday, including the nine-month-old daughter of a woman who died from stab wounds in hospital. The baby’s condition improved overnight on Sunday, health authorities said – from critical to serious.