Police swarm western Sydney church after mob react to teen allegedly stabbing prominent bishop
The stabbing of a prominent Christian leader and another man at an Assyrian church has led to an outbreak of total chaos in Sydney’s west, with police coming under attack from an angry mob gathered outside.
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A 15-year-old allegedly stabbed a religious leader in Sydney’s west on Monday evening, with an angry mob of thousands injuring police and destroying police cars two days after the city was rocked by a knife massacre at Bondi Junction.
Assyrian religious leader Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and another clergyman were stabbed as he delivered a live-streamed mass at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm on Monday.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Holland said the teen was known to police and was not a member of the congregation, but the incident, which he described as “rash”, had left him with serious injuries of his own.
“We’re making inquiries now as to how well he is known to police… we do know he’s not a regular attendee of the church,” Comm Holland said.
“His injuries are severe in his hand, he’s being looked at by doctors and obviously we’ll be talking to him probably (on Tuesday).”
Police arrested the teen at the scene but were forced to barricade themselves inside the church for several hours “for his safety”, Comm Holland said, as video of the incident spread and thousands gathered outside the church.
Police finally were able to remove the teen from the church late on Monday, before taking him to an undisclosed hospital for treatment, where he remains under police guard.
Comm Holland added the teen was “fairly upset and distraught” and was asking for his parents.
More than 100 police swarmed to the scene as the mob grew, but at least two police were injured as they clashed with members outside the church.
A constable was hit with a metal object and sustained a twisted knee and a chipped tooth.
Another constable sustained a broken jaw after he was hit with a brick and a fence paling.
Comm Holland said the bishop and clergyman’s injuries were non-life-threatening and called the “emotional response” to the stabbing “disappointing”.
“We’re a little bit disappointed in the community, a number of houses have been damaged, they broke into a number of houses to gain weapons to throw at police,” he said.
“It’s an emotional response from the community, when someone in the church is injured the way they have been… the local community has gone into uproar, given that there has been incidents obviously in Sydney in the last few days with knives involved, obviously there’s concerns and obviously the community had a response.”
Comm Holland said a strike force would be set up to investigate offenders and urged anyone with footage of the incident to pass it onto police.
“Further patrols” of places of worship across southwest Sydney would be conducted by police overnight, he added.
THE ATTACK
Assyrian religious leader Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed as he delivered a live-streamed mass with the stream followed in countries including the UK and US.
Video from inside the church shows police holding the alleged attacker on the ground, as churchgoers berate and slap him on the head.
“You f--king what, people are praying and you gonna come and do this?” one man said.
“Don’t, don’t, stop, just let it go, please, you’re only going to make it worse,” the policeman told the crowd, as he pinned the alleged attacker down.
Police officers who were first on the scene soon found themselves trapped inside the church and having to protect the alleged attacker, as the mob grew in size outside.
Bishop Mar Mari gained prominence during the Covid pandemic after slamming Sydney’s lockdown as “mass slavery” and claimed vaccines are futile because living “normally” will boost immunity.
On a Facebook group alone, the bishop has nearly 290,000 followers.
THE MOB
The Daily Telegraph understands 45 NSW Police vehicles were damaged and had to be towed from the scene.
This including having bricks thrown through back windows, front windscreens stomped in and side mirrors kicked off.
Two police officers were also injured, one of whom was taken to hospital.
“F--k the Highway, f--k the Highway,” some in the mob can be heard yelling.
Paramedics were blocked from getting near the church by the furious crowd and a cascade of cars that for hours on end flooded into the area.
“The roads are chaos, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” one witness said.
Police officers who believed they had clocked off for the day soon found themselves having to mobilise and head to Fairfield, including the highly trained Public Order and Riot Squad unit and the Raptor Squad.
As PolAir helicopters began providing assistance from the sky, those officers on the ground used capsicum spray to disperse the crowd – resulting in dozens of people needing medical treatment.
While the crowd began to move on from the area around Christ The Good Shepherd about 10pm, they soon congregated again in other nearby areas.
“It’s pandemonium, they’ve recalled all resources from right across Sydney to the church,” a police source said.
Police confirmed they had arrested a man on scene and he was removed from the church and taken to an undisclosed location.
Police were forced to make a human shield around the church to be able to remove the alleged attacker and take him to an “undisclosed” police station.
As the officers burst their way through the massive crowd, dozens of people were capsicum sprayed, requiring them to be taken for medical treatment.
THE HOSPITAL
The chaos from the area resulted in Liverpool Hospital being placed into lockdown while Premier Chris Minns called for calm amid what he described as “disturbing” scenes.
In the initial video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari, a man in black jumper and black pants can be seen approaching the altar in the middle of his sermon, before stabbing the church leader multiple times.
Parishioners let out screams of horror before rushing the altar to drag the man off the Bishop.
In the scuffle that followed, a NSW Ambulance spokesperson said three other men were injured, including the attacker.
A man in his 30s had multiple lacerations, while a man in his 20s had lacerations to his hand, and another man in his 60s had lacerations to his arm.
None of the injuries to Bishop Mar Mari or the other men were life-threatening, with video from inside the church showing the religious leader being tendered to by churchgoers.
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