Police
reportedly believe the 18-year-old terror suspect shot dead after he
stabbed two police officers was planning to behead them.
The
man was named this afternoon as Numan Haider, who had posted
threatening messages about security agencies on Facebook page and had
recently unfurled an ISIS flag at a local shopping centre.
Fairfax Media is reporting that Haider carried two knives and was planning to use the larger one in a beheading.
He
would then drape the officers' bodies in the Islamic State flag and
post the pictures online, the report said. A police spokeswoman refused
to confirm the allegation.
Haider
was shot after he allegedly stabbed the officers during a pre-arranged
meeting in a carpark near Endeavour Hills Police Station in Melbourne's
south-east.
Police
said the teenager, from Narre Warren, came to meet the officers at the
request of the police around 7.45pm on Tuesday night. The officers
greeted him cordially and offered to shake hands when he struck without
warning.
Haider
repeatedly stabbed the AFP officer in the face and upper body, police
said, then attacked the Victoria police officer, who was wounded in the
forearm before fatally wounding him with one shot.
'Our
members had no inkling this individual posed a threat to them and as
far as we were concerned it was going to be an amicable discussion about
that individual's behaviour,' Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner
Luke Cornelius said.
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Dressed up: Pictures of Numan Haider posted on Facebook.
Camouflage: Images posted on Haider's Facebook page show him wearing military dress
Mourning: People were seen coming and going from the Numan Haider's family home.
Mourning: People were seen coming and going from the Numan Haider's family home.
Taken away: The coroner removes the body of the 18-year-old man from Endeavour Hills Police Station in Melbourne.
Retrieval: The body is taken away by the coroner.
Pictures from a helicopter captured show a man's body lying in a car park where the confrontation occurred
Police carry bags of evidence away from the crime scene
Forensic police at the scene of an 18-year-old man was shot dead by police after allegedly stabbing two officers in Melbourne
The alleged stabbing took place
outside Endeavour Hills police station, south-east of Melbourne, at
about 7.45pm on Tuesday night
Police said they believed the man was attending the police station for an 'amicable discussion' when he attacked without warning
'It
is also clear to us that (the) individual has, without any warning,
produced a knife and assailed them with a knife,' he said. 'It's
absolutely clear to us our members had no choice but to act in the way
they did.'
Victoria
Police Commissioner Ken Lay told reporters the AFP officer, aged 43,
suffered multiple stab wounds to his face, neck and abdomen. He
underwent surgery last night and was in a serious but stable condition
in hospital. He has a wife and two children.
The senior constable who fired the fatal bullet suffered wounds to his forearm and was also in a stable condition.
Witnesses told The Sydney Morning Herald said Haider had been yelling insults about Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Australian government.
Mr
Abbott, who was on his way to New York for a United Nations meeting on
global security issues when the attack occurred, said he had been
briefed on the 'fierce attack' by a terrorist suspect.
"Obviously,
this indicates there are people in our community who are capable of
very extreme acts," Mr Abbott said in a video statement.
He said Australia's security forces would remain vigilant.
AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said police first took an interest in the dead man around three months ago.
But
some 'things he had been heard to say' and his activities at shopping
centres recently had caused them to become more concerned.
The officers - one from the Australian
Federal Police and the other from Victorian Police - were stabbed after
the teenager drew a knife during an arranged meeting
The AFP officer is was reportedly stabbed in the face and upper body, while the Victorian police officer was stabbed in the arm
Assistant Police Commissioner Luke Cornelius (left) said police had no choice but to shoot the teenager
The bomb squad examined the man's car and the police station following the incident.
Suited up: Bomb squad officers, pictured after the incident.
Much of Heatherton Rd - where the shooting took place - still remains closed
Mr
Lay said law enforcement agencies had been in contact with the dead
man's family, and were consulting with Islamic community leaders.
In
a Facebook post, firebrand Islamic preacher Mohammed Junaid Thorne said
the stabbed teenager was a 'wonderful, practicing (sic) young brother' –
and described incident as 'murder'.
'It is a time of grief for us Muslims,' Thorne told Daily Mail Australia.
The bomb squad examined the man's car and the police station following the incident.
Last night, police said they believe the man was 'acting on his own' but could not comment on his motivations.
Mr Cornelius said the Victorian officer fired the single shot that killed the man.
Officers said there is information suggesting the man who was shot had previously displayed an ISIS flag
Firebrand preacher Mohammed Junaid
Thorne described the man caught up in last night's incident as a
'wonderful, practicing (sic) young brother'.
Assistant Commissioner Cornelius also said police had no inkling that the deceased posed a threat to them
The man was a person of interest to police and part of an ongoing investigation
Neighbours of the 18-year-old man who shot dead by a Victoria Police officer last night say they are shocked by the incident.
'Nowadays
you have to be suspicious about every person, you never really know,' a
neighbour, who did not wished to be named, told Daily Mail Australia.
'You never know what's happening across the road.'
He said it was a multicultural neighbourhood.
'We've
got a good mix of people around here. There are Greeks here, we've got
Italians over there...and some other countries,' the neighbour said.
Islamic Council of Victoria secretary Ghaith Krayem confirmed the man was a Muslim and said his family was struggling.
He
said the man had been involved with Al-Furqan, an Islamic
fundamentalist group raided by police in 2012, but had not had recent
contact with them.
Mr
Krayem said the threat of ISIS in Australia had been overplayed and
police were on top of potential terror threats in Melbourne.
'There's
nobody who I'm aware of in the last couple of months in terms of who
the police are looking at, who the police weren't already looking at
well before now,' he said.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan urged Australians to remain calm.
'We
need to go about our daily lives,' he said. 'It is this type of bravery
and dedication shown by these officers that will continue to keep our
community safe and secure.
'I
want to make it clear that the public should feel confident that the
police, the security services and the government are taking every
possible step to ensure their safety and security of all our
communities.'
The altercation took place about 7.45pm and homicide detectives are leading the investigation
The shooting took place near Endeavour Hills station after two police officers were stabbed
Heatherton Road where the station is located was sealed off while investigations continued
The Islamic Council of Victoria has called for an investigation into the incident.
'There
needs to be a full and objective investigation into this incident to
ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated,' the council said in a
statement on Wednesday.
'This
tragedy highlights the real cost of a failure to deal with these
serious issues and why we have made numerous calls on the Australian
government to deal with the root causes of alienation and disaffection
of people such as this.'
The council said it would provide support to the man's family.
The
rise of the Islamic State terror group will be high on the agenda at
the United Nations meeting being attended by Mr Abbott.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott was on his way to a UN meeting on global security issues when the Melbourne attack occurred
On
Monday, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, the official spokesman of the Islamic
State terror group purportedly issued a chilling message calling on his
followers to murder Australians in ghastly ways.
Al-Adnani
said: 'If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially
the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or
any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the
citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the
Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way
however it may be.'
The
country witnessed the largest counter-terrorism raids in Australian
history last week. More than 800 police officers were involved in Sydney
alone.
Police
allege the effort disrupted a plot to behead a random member of the
public. Omarjan Azari, 22, was charged with conspiracy to commit a
terrorist attack on Australian soil.
A
second man, a 24-year-old from Merrylands in Sydney's west, was charged
with possessing ammunition without license and unauthorised possession
of a prohibited weapon.
He has been bailed to appear in Fairfield Local Court.
On Monday evening footage emerged of
the spokesman for the Islamic State terror group threatening nations
around the world, including Australia
Last week the largest terror raids in Australian history were carried out across Sydney and Brisbane
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK
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