Act of terrorism: Police reveal direct link between Raghe Abdi and elderly couple murdered in Parkinson home
Police fear an elderly couple found murdered in their Brisbane home may not have been the only victims of radicalised ISIS supporter Raghe Abdi.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Police have been knocking on doors around Parkinson amid fears an elderly couple may not have been the only victims of radicalised ISIS supporter Raghe Abdi.
And they are calling on people with relatives in the area to call them to make sure they are safe.
Maurice and Zoe Antill were found dead in their home yesterday, having suffered “significant injuries”, hours after 22-year-old Abdi was shot dead by police during a confrontation on the Logan Motorway.
Police are now calling the double homicide an “act of terrorism” and say they have evidence linking Abdi to the Parkinson home where the Antills were found dead.
It is understood they are investigating whether the knife he used to lunge at officers while shouting “Allahu Akbar” was taken from the Parkinson home.
There is no known link between Abdi and the Antills, who were in their 80s, and police believe it was likely a random attack.
Detectives are attempting to track his movements between when he cut off his GPS tracker around 3.30pm Wednesday afternoon and when he was shot at 6am Thursday - fearing he may have harmed someone else.
Earlier, Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford confirmed police were now treating Raghe Abdi’s actions as an act of terrorism.
“As a consequence of this investigation and we have now gleaned to date we are now treating this matter as a terrorism event,” Ms Linford said.
“I want to stress that nothing else has been uncovered at this point in time that would indicate there are any other persons involved in this terrorism event.”
Ms Linford said police received a welfare call about 3pm yesterday from a medical facility concerned that the couple had not turned up to a medical appointment.
“Examinations of the scene have led us to determine that that is a double homicide,” Ms Linford said.
“Further examination of both that scene and the scene of the police shooting yesterday has uncovered for us what we believe to be a direct link between the two matters.
“That link relates to the fact there was an item located that we believe has come from Mr Abdi that we believe has come from the address of the deceased elderly couple.
“And we are also looking into items of property that were located at their address that we believe may be owned by Mr Abdi. “
Ms Linford said police were now examining any link between Abdi and the elderly couple. Police were investigating if it was a random attack.
“At this stage we don’t know what the connection is,” she said.
She said police had been doorknocking overnight.
“Can I ask anybody who is watching today or listening if you have family living in that Parkinson area it would be a good time to check in on them and make sure they are OK.”
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Scott Lee said police did not believe there was any ongoing threat to the Queensland community and that Abdi acted alone.
Ms Linford said the police charges relating to the airport in 2019, the incident yesterday when Abdi tried to harm police before he was shot and the double homicide were all reasons why it was being treated as terrorism.
“When you put all those things together I think it’s pretty clear that we need to treat this as a terrorism event,” she said.
Ms Linford said police never wanted to shoot anybody.
“Would it be helpful if Mr Abdi was alive?” Ms Linford said.
“Of course. Not just for the police but for his family, for his friends. We don’t want anybody to be killed by police.
“But unfortunately there are times when police are forced to use lethal force and yesterday was one of the occasions.”
Ms Linford said the GPS tracker was removed 3.30pm on Wednesday. Police have now found the tracker in bushland, near the elderly couple’s home.
Ms Linford confirmed police were concerned for other residents in the area given the 14-hour window Abdi was not being monitored.
“Naturally that is a concern of ours, that’s why immediately after the two elderly people were discovered we did commence doorknocks in the area,” she said.
“The doorknocking is for two reasons – one is to discover who may have heard or seen something that is going to be of value to the investigation.
“But also it’s a welfare check on people who are living in the area because people will be in a heightened state of concern when we announce that we’ve had a terrorist event.
Ms Linford confirmed Abdi screamed “Allahu Akbar” when he lunged at police yesterday before he was shot.
She said police didn’t have any record of Abdi’s father calling police but said officers contacted him.
Mr Lee said Abdi first came to attention when he tried to travel to Somalia.
“As we alleged to involve himself in foreign incursion offences connected to Somalia and supportive of Islamic State,” he said.
“Those charges were not proceeded with due to insufficient evidence.
“But there were other lawful mechanisms that we took where we were seeking key evidence from digital devices that had been recovered by Mr Abdi at a point in time where we were seeking his co-operation to access those devices.
“When that co-operation was not provided there are penalties within the legislation and they were lawfully enforced by the joint counter-terrorism is team in terms of the actions we took.”
Mr Lee said police had received information in relation to Abdi’s ideology when investigating the 2019 airport-related incident.
“He was supportive of Islamic State and that was certainly the information that we received in terms of why he was intending or why he wished to travel offshore,” Mr Lee said.
“We would allege in terms of a linkage … to Al-Shabaab which is an Islamic State-inspired terrorist organisation.
“He first came to notice in early 2018.
“The information that was available to us was he was intending to travel to Somalia to seek to join and fight with Al-Shabaab.”
Police were investigating if the knife was from the home of the elderly couple.
Abdi had been checking in with police two times a week.
“Certainly there had been no indications of any escalations of violence in the lead up to these events,” Mr Lee said.
“Certainly up until this point the information that we had was that his focus had been primarily focused in terms of offshore, an offshore threat not an onshore threat.”
When asked how terrifying the situation would for the elderly couple if it was a random or terrorist attack, Ms Linford responded: “I agree with you, it is terrifying.”
“And we have seen right across the world very unsophisticated attacks take place without warning against innocent bystanders in shopping centres, in workplaces, in homes,” she said.
“This is a very real example of the fact that terrorism can happen in many different ways and it would appear on this occasion that that’s how it has played out here in Queensland.”
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the incident was isolated and there was no need for Queensland to be concerned.
“There is going to be a family grieving over the loss of a loved one,” she said.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said they had no choice but to declare it as a terrorist incident.
“Unfortunately a tragedy has occurred and our condolences and sympathies go out to the families involved,” she said.
“As far as we know, at this stage Abdi is the only person who has been involved in this.
“This is not unlike terrorist attacks around the world...this has been seen across the world and certainly we are looking at that.”
More Coverage
Urgent search for three children missing from Gold Coast
Police are seeking urgent assistance to locate a 10-year-old girl, a six-year-old boy and a baby reported missing from the Gold Coast since Friday.
Teen trio among four killed in two horror crashes just hours apart
A motorbike rider has been killed just hours a catastrophic crash which claimed the lives of three teenage friends on a nearby road in Mackay. UPDATES.