‘Radicalised’ teenager who committed a stabbing attack in Perth carpark left trail of destruction and lifetime of pain

A radicalised Perth teenager has died in a police shooting after sending messages plotting a “jihad” as a “soldier” of al-Qaeda. What is left masks the horror that unfolded in a Bunnings carpark.

• Shot teen’s chilling final message
• Albo slams social media giants

A pair of detectives, a lone bouquet of flowers and the last of a shrinking media throng were the only signs on Sunday night of a crime that made headlines across the world.

Two security guards sat outside the Willetton Bunnings in Perth’s southern suburbs, just a stone’s throw from where a 16-year-old boy who had been radicalised online was shot dead by police after stabbing a stranger.

Less than 24 hours before, the hardware store’s carpark was the scene of a major police operation after the teenager was killed when he charged three officers, armed with a 30cm kitchen knife.

Police have shot a teenager in perth after the boy attacked a man with a knife.

Just after 10pm Saturday hours after the usual humdrum of a Bunnings carpark on a weekend had faded and the sausage sizzle stand was long packed away, a man walking through the deserted lot came within inches of losing his life.

He was confronted by the teenager, who was hellbent on death and destruction.

His final messages, sent to members of the Muslim community, paint a picture of a monster ready to unleash misery on anyone in his path.

“Brothers please forgive me for any time I have wronged you, I am going on the path of jihad tonight for the sake of Allah,” the boy reportedly wrote.

Chilling CCTV shows the moment he did just that.

The vision shows the boy maniacally charging through the empty carpark, knife in hand, as police cars with lights flashing circle him.

The boy, who appears much larger than the average 16-year-old, has moments earlier left a stranger fighting for life on the ground.

Still he charges the officers.

Police were responding to a call from the boy, who had been part of a deradicalisation program for the past two years, warning them he would “commit acts of violence”.

The next call confirmed he had.

With not even two tasers able to stop the boy in his tracks, he is committed to causing as much harm as he can.

With his final act, he tries to take the life of a police officer, before he is fatally shot.

His victim, a man in his 30s not known to him, remained in hospital on Sunday night in a serious but stable condition.

There are now concerns within the Muslim community, who repeatedly warned police about the boy’s radical views, that his violence will spark a wave of Islamophobia.

Despite the chaos, at 7pm Sunday, business carried on as usual at the Korean barbecue restaurant near the crime scene, while gym-goers came and went from the 24-hour fitness centre next door.

By Monday, the last signs of one of the most terrifying incidents to rock suburban Perth will likely be all but gone as police and the wider community try to piece together how a boy under the watch of authorities got to this point.