Agony and ecstasy

The NSW Premier leaves a wreath

Floral tributes for the slain Police accountant

Friday 2 October: Around 4:30 p.m. a young man clad in a black robe is pacing up and down on the road opposite the Police headquarters in Parramatta, NSW’s second largest city. He had just shot and killed a civilian employee (an accountant) who had come out of the Police office after work to go home. 

Waving the handgun in the air the young man keeps on shouting ‘Allah,’ ‘Allah’. Two special constables come out of the Police building and start shooting at the young man who shoots back. Taking cover the constables boldly come out a couple and keep shooting. Finally the young man drops dead. The news shocks in the entire state. TV channels continues ‘breaking news’ late into the night.

Saturday 3 October: The killer is identified as a 15-year old Muslim student in year 10 attending a school close to the Police office. He had been to the mosque in the early afternoon before committing the murder. TV channels show the entire drama captured by CCTV throughout the day.

Sunday 4 October: Large crowds start landing in Sydney to watch the grand final of the NRL – National Rugby League – between two teams from Queensland. The game is played at the Olympic Park, a few kilometres away from the scene of the murder two days back. Police tightens security well aware that they have a big task in hand. Several charter flights bring in thousands of fans and a festive atmosphere prevails. A crowd of over 80,000 (official figure was announced as 82,758) have gathered at the stadium by 6 in the evening. By 10 in the night everything is over. No incidents are reported. Police breathe a sigh of relief. 

Within 48 hours people had experienced anguish and joy. 

Monday 5 October: Police began unravelling the mystery of how a teenager can be so bold as to kill a person opposite the Police headquarters. Details of the family of the killer teenager were being collected. The family had come to Australia from Iran. It appears his sister had flown out the day before the incident.

Tuesday 6 October: A student who allegedly threatened a Sydney Police station on his Facebook page is stopped by the Police on his way to the same school attended by the teenager who shot dead a Police accountant. The student is reported to have threatened and intimidated Police and he is arrested.

Wednesday 7 October: NSW Premier Mike Baird says more must be done to combat radicalisation in schools and that Sydney has a problem with Islamic extremism. “This is a terrorist incident. That’s what it is – there is no doubt about it, we have to ensure that we don’t see incidents like this again,” he tells reporters.

NSW Police Commissioner says that within 12 hours of the shooting, Police knew that the killer student had terrorist links. “Certainly we know that this young man had been radicalised. We know that now,” he says.

Four persons are arrested for questioning on the shooting. About 200 Policemen raid four houses and remove lot of information and equipment.

Thursday 8 October: Media reports say that Police believe the high school student who killed the Police accountant was recruited by a group of western Sydney extremists to carry out a terrorist attack because they thought they were under too much surveillance to do it themselves. CCTV from Parramatta Mosque, now in the hands of Police, shows several men meeting him at the mosque on Friday, hours before he walked to the Parramatta Police Headquarters and shot the Police accountant in the back of the head.

Police believe the teenager acquired an older-style handgun at the mosque that afternoon and put it in his Nike backpack.

Investigations are continuing at the time of writing.