Sydney shooting has terror links, police chief says

An Instagram picture of 15-year-old Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar.

Australia is constantly working to find a solution to the radicalisation of teenagers, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says.

His comments come after a 15-year-old boy of Iraqi-Kurdish background was revealed as the lone gunman who shot dead a police worker on Friday afternoon.

He has been identified as Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar.

Police told the ABC that Farhad had attended a local mosque shortly before the shooting.

The actions of the boy, who was born in Iran, are linked to terrorism, police say.

After killing Curtis Cheng, who had worked in the NSW police finance department for 17 years, Farad was shot dead outside the force’s Parramatta headquarters by officers.

Mr Scipione said finding an answer to teenage radicalisation was “the global question at the moment”.

Police believe the 15-year-old gunman in a terrorism-related attack in Sydney was acting alone.

The youth lived at a family apartment in North Parramatta and reportedly was listed as a student at Arthur Phillip High School in Parramatta. He was described as a naturalised Australian. One report said a brother had contacted police soon after the shootings.

Mr Cheng was leaving the State Crime Command in Parramatta yesterday afternoon when he was shot from behind by the boy, who was of Iraqi-Kurdish background and was born in Iran.

Witnesses said that after shooting dead the civilian employee, the teenager ran up and down in front of police headquarters waving his handgun in the air and shouting: “Allah. Allah.”

Mr Scipione said the attack by the 15-year-old gunman was “politically motivated and therefore linked to terrorism”.

It’s not clear whether Mr Cheng was targeted because he came from the police building, but Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says the shot “was not an accident”.

“It was a direct shooting … it certainly wasn’t a ricochet, it was a targeted shot (from behind) that took his life,” he told reporters in Sydney today.

source:theaustralian.com