As it happened: WA news on Friday, July 25

WA Police have just revealed details of an incident at a Joondalup shopping centre on Thursday afternoon, where a man carrying a knife allegedly tried to steal a car, before setting off several flares.

About 3.40pm, the 29-year-old man from Banksia Grove allegedly attempted to steal a rideshare vehicle and then set off a flare which damaged the car.

Flares were let off at Lakeside Joondalup shopping centre on Thursday afternoon. Credit: WA Incident Alerts

The driver was also allegedly assaulted and received facial injuries.

The man then went inside the Lakeside Joondalup shopping centre and allegedly set off a second flare while carrying a knife.

He was detained by security guards – one of whom sustained minor injuries to his knee – with members of the public also stepping in to help.

The 29-year-old also received a laceration to his hand and was taken to hospital for treatment.

He has been charged with several offences including attempted aggravated robbery, criminal damage and destruction of property, endangering the life, health or safety of a person and carrying or possessing an edged weapon.

“The actions of all involved ensured no one was seriously injured and potentially prevented a tragic outcome,” Assistant Commissioner Martin Haime told reporters at a press conference on Friday afternoon.

“It’s unsettling with previous events in other jurisdictions but the reality is, it was a very positive outcome yesterday due to the actions of the public and the security officers involved.

“A number of people present may have filmed the incident, and we urge those people to contact 131 444.”

Police are treating the offending as a mental health incident. The man appeared in court today.

WA police say they have charged a senior officer with stalking.

A police spokesperson said the officer had previously been stood down from the force.

She has been charged with four counts of unlawful use of a computer system and one count of stalking.

She remains stood down, and is due to appear before the Perth Magistrates Court on August 6.

Thanks for following our live blog – that’s a wrap for today. We’ll be back soon with more live coverage.

Two literary heavyweights will be in Perth this Sunday as revered Australian author Helen Garner, author of novels and non-fiction masterpieces including Monkey Grip, The First Stone, Joe Cinque’s Consolation and This House of Grief appears in conversation with The New Yorker literary critic Dr. Merve Emre.

Professor Emre is author of the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, and author of Paraliterary, The Personality Brokers, and The Annotated Mrs Dalloway, and has served as a Booker Prize judge.

Garner’s latest non-fiction work, The Season, is billed as an intimate meditation on love, ageing and the possibilities of masculinity, told through the lens of a football season.

Helen Garner and Dr Merve Emre.

Garner’s devotion to the under-16s team offers her a chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, Amby – to be close to him before he rushes into manhood, to witness his triumphs and defeats, to fear for his safety in battle, to gasp and cheer for his team as it fights for a place in the finals.

The conversation promises to explore, through Emre’s scholarly precision and Garner’s raw emotional honesty, how personal experience becomes universal truth on the page.

Prof James Arvanitakis, director of the Forrest Research Foundation (hosting the event alongside the WA Museum and Foundation for the WA Museum) said he was “incredibly excited” to further the foundation’s mission to bring world-class intellects to Western Australia, providing access to the minds shaping contemporary thought and discourse.

In Conversation: Helen Garner and Merve Emre is on this Sunday 2pm-3.30pm at the WA Museum Boola Bardip.

The numbers are eye-watering, but West Coast coach Andrew McQualter is confident Harley Reid won’t feel a burden upon becoming the highest-paid player in the AFL.

Reid’s contract status has hit the headlines again this week after his manager Nick Gieschen flew to Perth to have further talks with the Eagles.

Harley Reid of the Eagles.Credit: Getty Images

They have tabled a number of different-length deals to Reid, whose current contract runs out at the end of 2026.

One is reportedly worth around $24 million over 11 years, with Victorian clubs also willing to offer long-term deals exceeding $2 million a season.

Reid is already one of the most talked about players in the league, but can the 20-year-old Victorian handle being the highest paid?

When asked about the burden of Reid becoming the highest-paid player in the league, McQualter said the pressure came from being the best, rather than the money being earned.

“For me, I’ll take the contract out of it because I think it’s irrelevant,” McQualter said.

“It’s when you’re one of the best players in the competition – there’s a burden that comes with it … It’s the skill of being able to cope with that.

“We train that from a mental perspective. It’s challenging, but the best players embrace it, and they go about their business, which I’m sure Harley will be one of those.”

Reid will be the centre of attention yet again when he lines up in Saturday’s western derby against the Dockers.

The star midfielder has hit top form recently, and his performance in the round six derby last year will still be front of mind for Fremantle fans.

Reid tallied 19 disposals, seven clearances and three goals to lead the Eagles to an upset 37-point win, and Dockers coach Justin Longmuir said he’s well aware of the “threat”.

Given it’s technically a Fremantle home game, Reidis set to cop plenty of boos at Optus Stadium tomorrow.

AAP

A man has died after he was tasered by police during an arrest in Perth’s east in the early houses of Friday morning.

Police were called to Priestley Street in Embleton following reports a man was acting erratically just after midnight.

He allegedly entered a house and smashed a number of windows before going out into the back garden.

He wasn’t known to the people living at the home.

Officers said they tried to negotiate with him, but he continued to act “aggressively”.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Haime said an officer then deployed a taser.

“The man was eventually restrained, but minutes later appeared to suffer a medical episode,” he said.

“Officers immediately provided first aid and notified St John Ambulance to provide assistance.”

The man died shortly after.

“Due to the fact the man had been in police custody prior to his death, officers from the internal investigation unit will investigate his death as a death in police custody, and a report will be prepared for the coroner,” Haime said.

“Our thoughts are with the man’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.

“Our thoughts are also with first responders, the attending officers, who acted quickly to provide medical assistance to the man, as well as paramedics and medical staff.”

A 46-year-old Watermans Bay man will fight allegations he strangled an 11-year-old player at a children’s soccer match in May.

Prosecutors allege Steven James Naoum was at a junior soccer game at Abbeville Park in Mindarie on May 25 with his son when he approached an 11-year-old boy during a game between Mindarie FC and Whitford City FC.

It was alleged a “physical altercation occurred”, resulting in Naoum being charged with impeding another person’s breathing or circulation by applying pressure to the neck.

The court was told the boy was not injured and didn’t require medical treatment.

On Friday, he entered a plea of not guilty to the charge at Joondalup Magistrates Court.

The matter was next listed in Perth Magistrates Court on October 7 for a trail allocation date.

A trial date will then be set, which is expected to take three days.

WA Police have just revealed details of an incident at a Joondalup shopping centre on Thursday afternoon, where a man carrying a knife allegedly tried to steal a car, before setting off several flares.

About 3.40pm, the 29-year-old man from Banksia Grove allegedly attempted to steal a rideshare vehicle and then set off a flare which damaged the car.

Flares were let off at Lakeside Joondalup shopping centre on Thursday afternoon. Credit: WA Incident Alerts

The driver was also allegedly assaulted and received facial injuries.

The man then went inside the Lakeside Joondalup shopping centre and allegedly set off a second flare while carrying a knife.

He was detained by security guards – one of whom sustained minor injuries to his knee – with members of the public also stepping in to help.

The 29-year-old also received a laceration to his hand and was taken to hospital for treatment.

He has been charged with several offences including attempted aggravated robbery, criminal damage and destruction of property, endangering the life, health or safety of a person and carrying or possessing an edged weapon.

“The actions of all involved ensured no one was seriously injured and potentially prevented a tragic outcome,” Assistant Commissioner Martin Haime told reporters at a press conference on Friday afternoon.

“It’s unsettling with previous events in other jurisdictions but the reality is, it was a very positive outcome yesterday due to the actions of the public and the security officers involved.

“A number of people present may have filmed the incident, and we urge those people to contact 131 444.”

Police are treating the offending as a mental health incident. The man appeared in court today.

To the courts now and a West Australian FIFO worker has been awarded over $30,000 in an unfair dismissal claim with the Fair Work Commission after she was blamed for a mix-up which resulted in the loss of $200,000 worth of gold.

Jamie-Lee Corless-Crane, employed as a pit technician at a Mt Ida gold mine site, submitted her claim in January against Aurenne Management Services.

Corless-Crane was blamed for letting nearly 60 ounces of gold go to a waste facility, rather than being processed properly.

Later, she received an email stating she had failed to take “due diligence” to ensure the right location was being mined.

“As the least experienced member of my department, I rely on the information provided to me from my department and trust that it is accurate,” she wrote back.

But she was then dismissed and commenced her claim with Fair Work, which found there had been a number of mistakes made by more senior team members in the lead-up to Corless-Crane’s decision to send the gold to the waste facility.

Fair Work Commission Deputy President Melanie Binet said the dismissal was “unjust and unreasonable in the circumstances”.

“It was harsh in its consequences given the personal and economic circumstances of Ms Coreless-Crane and the impact of those circumstances on her capacity to secure alternative employment,” she said.

“It was disproportionate given the human and systematic flaws which contributed to the incident and as compared to the treatment of other employees.”

A Perth man has been arrested and charged following a break-in in Clarkson on Tuesday.

The 53-year-old man was allegedly in the company of two others when they broke into the house on Willoughby Retreat around 9.30pm.

Police say a struggle ensued with the residents, before the group stole an “item” and fled.

The man was refused bail and will appear in Perth Magistrates Court later today.

Earlier in the week, we bought you the news that a multimillion-dollar application had been made by Wesley College to revamp of its 60-year-old swimming pool – which the school says is at the “end of its useful life”.

The Metro Inner Development Assessment Panel discussed that $12.1 million plan on Thursday and gave it the stamp of approval.

The development panel heard that the majority of the funding for the pool came from a “philanthropic donation,” with the remaining amount donated by the Wesley community.

The pool will be used from 5am or 6am in the morning, sometimes until 9pm or 10pm at night and members of the community can pay a fee to join and make use of the facilities as well.

The panel noted that there was a lack of other options in the area, and that the City of South Perth was not pursuing its own swimming pool project that had been on the table a few years ago.

The plans were voted in unanimously.

A crisis accommodation service in the Pilbara town of Roebourne has completed refurbishment of a safe house for women and children using a $755,784 grant from the state government.

The safe house, operated by Mawarnkarra Health Service, provides accommodation for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness due to domestic violence or other crises.

As well as a full refurbishment, the funding supported the addition of a new bedroom for overnight staff accommodation at the four-bedroom property, which also includes communal bathrooms, kitchen, dining, living and laundry rooms.

The grant is part of the government’s $5.8 billion investment in housing and homelessness measures since 2021.

Housing and Works Minister John Carey said it was important to provide safe and supportive accommodation for Aboriginal women and children at risk of homelessness.

Family and Domestic Violence Minister Jessica Stojkovski said it was critical victim-survivors of family and domestic violence have access to a safe place to stay when they need it most, no matter where they live.

“Mawarnkarra’s facility not only provides refuge for vulnerable Aboriginal women and their children, but also offers culturally appropriate, holistic support to rebuild their lives after escaping family and domestic violence,” she said.

Pilbara MLA Kevin Michel said the refurbishment “ensures women and children have a secure place to turn to during their most vulnerable moments”.