Arncliffe, Rockdale stabbing spree: Man previously arrested with Koran, court hears

A man who went on a violent rampage across Sydney had previously been arrested with a Koran including an underlined passage about judgment day, an inquest today heard.

A man who went on a violent rampage across Sydney had once been arrested outside the city’s Australian Federal Police headquarters with a Koran that had a passage marked about judgment day, an inquest has heard.

The 24-year-old, known only as AF because his identity is suppressed, died from self-inflicted stab wounds in the middle of an Arncliffe street in January 2019 only an hour after he began his crime spree that included a good Samaritan being stabbed in the stomach.

Revealing her findings into AF’s death on Wednesday, Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes said the man had been charged with damaging Commonwealth property in 2016 for hitting a police vehicle with a metal bar in a street next to the AFP’s Goulburn St building.

AF’s body in the middle of an Arncliffe street. Picture: Damian Shaw

Officers arrested AF in 2016 and found a Koran in his car that had a passage marked relating to judgment day, Lidcombe Coroners Court was told.

Police also noticed he had a tattoo on his right hand of the number “313”, which is a reference to the number of soldiers that the Prophet Muhammad commanded in the first conflict fought by Muslims called the Battle of Badr.

AF’s charge was later dismissed in court under section 32 of the mental health act instead of going through the normal justice system.

Police take photos following the rampage. Picture: Damian Shaw

Ms Forbes said the rampage in January 2019 began when police tried to pull AF over for driving a 4WD without plates while in a “trancelike state” at Bass Hill.

But, when he was blocked, AF rammed a police car in his 4WD before fleeing the scene and stealing a Woolworths truck at Chullora marketplace, the court heard.

He exited the truck in a Rockdale street and was waving his knife at people when he was approached by a man who knew him and who pointed to his own “313” neck tattoo in an effort to calm him.

“Look, we are brothers … Stop stabbing innocent people, drop the knife, calm down,” the man said to AF.

However AF stabbed the man in the stomach — causing serious injuries to his intestines — before carjacking a taxi at knifepoint and driving away, the court was told.

At 3.28pm, about 49 minutes after the first incident with police at Bass Hill, AF mounted a kerb and blew a tyre at Arncliffe.

AF exited the taxi and started to stab himself before police used capsicum spray on him in an effort to stop him.

However he could not be saved and died in the middle of the street from 24 self-inflicted stab wounds.

Ms Forbes said police had done the right thing when trying to stop and negotiate with AF, who she said was suffering from schizophrenia at the time.

“In this case there were obvious and serious risks to the safety of the public and it was necessary for police to take action, including the pursuits to stop AF,” she said.

“I have carefully considered whether anything should have been done differently by the police in their attempts to prevent AF from further endangering the public on this day.

“I am satisfied that this matter was appropriately assessed as a high-risk situation due to AF’s dangerous driving, the fact that AF had a knife and that a member of the public had been stabbed”.