Sydney stabbings as it happened: Westfield Bondi Junction to open for ‘community reflection day’; Wakeley rioters set to be targeted by police

That’s where we’ll leave another day of live coverage of the fallout from the Bondi Junction and Wakeley stabbings.

Here’s what we learnt today:

From Bondi Junction:

• There were hugs, tears and lots of flowers with hundreds of people queuing to pay tribute as Westfield Bondi Junction opened its doors for a community reflection day, before retail returns tomorrow.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggested the government will allow a heroic security guard who confronted the attacker in the Bondi shopping centre attack to stay in Australia permanently.

From Wakeley:

• Dani Mansour, the first man to be arrested over Monday night’s Wakeley unrest, has been granted strict bail after a court heard he was allegedly involved in kicking two police cars.
• There have been no more arrests made in connection with the Wakeley riot as police work to unmask those who hid their identities.
• The bishop who was stabbed during a livestreamed sermon in Wakeley on Monday night broke his silence in an audio statement released from his hospital bed to tell his supporters he is doing well and to call for ‘christ-like’ forgiveness for the perpetrator.
• A magistrate considering the bail application of the first alleged Wakeley rioter to face courtrevealed police estimate 2000 people were involved in the mob, more than three times larger than initially thought.
• A western Sydney doctor who is in contact with the family of the accused Wakeley church stabber says the teenager has “anger management issues” and hadn’t been to school in six months.

In an appearance on SBS World News, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked about the suggestion the ‘terrorism’ label has been applied selectively in the cases of the Bondi Junction and Wakeley attacks.

Specifically, the prime minister was asked if he thought the Bondi Junction attack, which saw a disproportionate number of women targeted and killed, could have been classified as ‘misogyny-driven terrorism’.

Albanese said it wasn’t his place to make such assessments.

“I tell you what shouldn’t happen which is politicians finding these things rather than security and police agencies. That is what should not happen,” he said.

“We know that Monday’s incident was either religiously or ideologically motivated, and that has been determined by the security agencies, and I support the police making the declaration that they did.”

Asked more broadly if he thought ‘misogyny-driven terrorism’ existed, Albanese had this to say:

What does exist is too much violence against women. We know that is the case.

That can be the case, unfortunately, in households. The violence against women occurs far too frequently with someone that they know, whether it is a partner or someone that they know in a family situation or they have known through other relationships, and we have seen far too many tragedies this year.”

Premier Chris Minns held another meeting with Sydney’s religious leaders this afternoon, in a further bid to maintain peace following the riots outside a Wakeley church on Monday night.

The faith leaders gathered at the Maronite Church Of Australia in Strathfield.

NSW Premier Chris Minns led the meeting with religious leaders.Credit: Jonathan Ng

At 5pm, the Bondi Junction Westfield will close its doors after a day of solemn reflection that allowed mourners to leave tributes and condolences inside the centre where six people were killed on Saturday.

Mourners left floral tributes at a temporary memorial.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Inside the centre, music was turned off and talking kept to a minimum. The loudest thing was the hum of the escalators.

Throughout the day, hundreds of mourners, many dressed in black, gathered around an open space on the fourth floor to place flowers and write notes of condolence.

A note affixed to a bouquet of flowers reads, ‘for Ashlee’.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Dozens of white flowers and wreaths had been laid there by Westfield management before opening.

With no ads being displayed, all digital signage had been replaced by a single black ribbon.

Read Anthony Segaert’s full account of the community reflection day here.

NSW Police have taken to social media to encourage the collection of belongings left behind during the panic of the Bondi Junction stabbings.

A lost and found has been established at the Waverley Police Station. People can attend the station during business hours to collect their items, but they will be required to provide proof of ownership.

In a press conference earlier today, NSW Premier Chris Minns provided an update on the government’s efforts to manage the spread of misinformation on social media after both the Bondi Junction and Wakeley stabbings.

“In the immediate aftermath of the crimes we spoke directly with the Commonwealth government about removing specific pages, pages that have become famous or infamous for spreading misinformation in the community,” Minns said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns during the press conference this morning.Credit: Louise Kennerley

“That might be direct action from the social media company, or otherwise, but they are down which is good news to stop instances of misinformation about damage to mosques and churches that was being spread like wildfire and inflaming tensions in the community.”

Minns also said social media sites weren’t taking responsibility for the removal of graphic footage.

He said:

I am concerned about graphic, violent imagery being available on these major websites 48 hours after the incident had occurred.

It might be the case you sit back and say someone posts something immediate to give social media firms a bit of time to take it down, but we’re 48 hours after these alleged criminal offences took place and it is still available.

This is dangerous for two reasons, firstly it adds to the sense of community disharmony and secondly it is completely inappropriate for children. I think everyone has a responsibility to not provide graphic imagery to young people who can just access it from their bedrooms on their phones.”

The National Imams Council says the rush to declare the Wakeley stabbing a terrorist attack risks undoing years of progress on religious tolerance in western Sydney, as the community reels from a teenager’s assault on a local church.

Bilal Rauf, the Imams Council spokesman, said to label it as religious terrorism completely overlooks a more primary factor: mental health.

“There is a real sense of disparity with Bondi,” he said.

“There it was very quickly said to be related to mental health but here where it is a 16-year-old boy they said this must be religious terrorism.”

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb declared the incident a terror attack within hours of the 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbing Christ the Good Shepherd Church Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.Credit: x - @AustralianJA

The National Imam’s Council is Australia’s peak Islamic body and selects the Grand Mufti of Australia to lead Australia’s more than 800,000 mostly Sunni Muslims.

Rauf said the Muslim community was on edge.

“Everyone else is looking at them - thinking he is a terrorist that has come from among you - when that does not appear to be the case at all,” he said.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb declared the incident a terror attack after the 16-year-old boy stabbed Christ the Good Shepherd Church Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel multiple times during a Monday night service in Wakeley. The teenager cannot be named for legal reasons.

Webb said the teenager allegedly made comments “centred around religion” in the lead-up to the attack. Gamel Kheir, a lawyer and secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said the boy’s father had noticed increasing signs of mental illness but had not seen any evidence of him becoming radicalised.

“This is hateful and violent conduct, but it is not necessarily religiously driven,” said Rauf.

“If anything in the community there is a real sense of disappointment that there was a rush to designate it a religious terrorist event. The designation was made even before police had spoken to the boy or his parents.”

Rauf said the terrorism declaration had generated cynicism about how these decisions are made and put at risk years of positive progress on religious tolerance made with the state government.

That confidence was dented by revelations in February that the Australian Federal Police had encouraged a 13-year-old autistic boy’s fixation with Islamic State before charging him with terror offences once he turned 14.

“People in the community are perplexed and disappointed,” said Rauf.

“It increases Islamophobia and anti-muslim sentiment.”

Inside Westfield, on level four, a temporary memorial to those killed and injured in the attack has been growing since the centre reopened at 11am.

The temporary memorial inside the Westfield Bondi Junction quickly filled up with floral tributes.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Hundreds of people have walked through the shops. Many are lining up outside the Tommy Hilfiger store for their turn to lay flowers and write in the condolence books.

“We come together to remember those who lost their lives here, Saturday 13th April 2024,” signage around the shops read.

Bondi Westfield on Thursday.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

If you’d like to contribute to the memorial, you can do so by entering through any Westfield entrance until it closes at 5pm tonight.

The first man to be arrested over Monday night’s Wakeley unrest has been granted strict bail after a court heard he was allegedly involved in kicking two police cars, with footage of his alleged actions posted to his Instagram account

Dani Mansour, 19, was arrested on Wednesday night as terrorism police stormed into his Doonside home. He was charged with riot, affray and destroying or damaging property over the riot that followed the stabbing attack of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.

Dani Mansour leaves Blacktown Local Court after being released on bail.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

At Blacktown Local Court on Thursday, Mansour appeared in the dock in his prison greens with family supporting him in the public gallery.

Police allege Mansour was involved in kicking police cars and posted videos of his alleged criminal behaviour on his Instagram story as more than 2,000 people gathered outside the church.

The court heard Mansour is a barber at Mount Druitt is the sole breadwinner for his parents and sister, whom he lives with. It also heard he has no prior convictions.

Mansour’s mother and sister outside court.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

Magistrate Aaron Tang said that while Mansour’s alleged offending was “serious and violent” and carries a maximum of 15 years in jail, it was less serious than some of the other violence other rioters allegedly committed.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Reuben van Der Byl argued against Mansour being granted bail due to the risk of him interfering with other witnesses, further endangering the community and committing further alleged offences.

But Tang ultimately granted bail, noting his clean criminal record and need to financially support his family could be balanced with strict bail conditions effectively equalling home detention.

Under his conditions, he must not leave home unless travelling to work, reporting to police or for medical emergencies, not use social media and not contact any prosecution witness except through a lawyer. “There’s no place for vigilante justice in our society,” Tang said.

“Police have a very difficult job to play as do ambulance officers… police were attending to do their job … already aware it would’ve been violent, let alone them being confronted with an even more violent situation with the alleged riot… those who acted in the riot acted in reprehensible way”.

Tang said that as of Thursday morning, Mansour was the first and only person arrested at the riot, which saw 94 police cars damaged, and 26 officers injured, but many more arrests were likely.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has again indicated that stricter knife laws are being considered following the Bondi Junction and Wakeley stabbings.

Minns was quick to point out his government already strengthened knife offences legislation, after the stabbing death of paramedic Steven Tougher in 2023.

Premier Chris Minns, Police Commissioner Karen Webb and Police Minister Yasmin Catley gave a press conference this morning.Credit: Louise Kennerley

“Mid last year, legislative changes went to the Parliament, doubling the jail term for the maximum penalty for knife offences in New South Wales, we took out the summary offences act and put in the Crimes Act and doubled the penalty fines that we would be issued by magistrates and judges as a result of knife offences.”

But Minns said that didn’t mean further changes were off the table.

“However, given these very serious criminal attacks in the last week, of course a responsible government looks at the existing legislation to see where potential changes could help prevent a similar attack,” the premier said.

“I don’t want to prejudge it, to ensure that whatever legislative and policy changes we make, they make a difference and that will take a little bit of time.”

Additionally, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the government would consider similar laws to those implemented in Queensland that allow officers to use metal detectors without a warrant.