WA Minister Warned About Perth Attacker's Behavior

The education minister of Western Australia, Tony Buti, had received a letter regarding the behavior of the teenager, who was shot dead in a standoff by the police in Perth on Saturday.

Authorities alleged the 16-year-old boy, a student at Rossmoyne Senior High School, was radicalized online and may have suffered mental health issues.

WA Premier Roger Cook confirmed that a parent had raised concern about the boy's behavior, but the police or authorities were helpless as the boy did not commit any crime and he was being managed by education authorities. "The minister automatically referred the letter to the Education Department for actioning," Premier Cook told reporters.
"The Education Department took that information on board and continued to manage that young man."

"The police are responsible for enforcing the law. The law does not prohibit people from having extreme thoughts," he said.

The boy stabbed a 30-year-old man in the car park of a store in suburban Perth, then made a call to the police and warned he was he was going to commit "acts of violence". When the police reached the spot, the boy lunged at them with a kitchen knife.

The injured man was in a stable condition in hospital.

Prior to the stabbing incident on Saturday, the teenager messaged some of his friends about Islam and jihad. The text also warned recipients to "clear your technology such as laptops and phones including search history ... as the police will likely look into my contacts", ABC News reported.

The boy was attending the state-run anti-extremist program. Cook said the boy was a voluntary participant in that program for the past two years.

Cook ruled out it was a terrorist attack. "We are confident that this was a single act by a single person acting alone. There is no further threat to the community," he said.

The premier said the Islamic community had alerted the authorities and police about the boy's extremist views.

Briefing the media about the attack, Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the boy, who was Caucasian, was a convert to Islam and he suffered from "mental health issues.'' He added the police acted professionally, as they made several attempts to make the attacker drop the knife and deployed two Tasers when he did not comply, 9news reported.