UPDATE: Police sources say the shooter in yesterday’s Parramatta attack was a 15-year-old boy of Middle Eastern background.
The youth is said to have shouted religious slogans during the incident, which ended when armed special constables responding to the attack returned fire, killing him. His victim was a civilian worker, shot in the back of the head as he left the NSW Police state headquarters on Charles Street, Parramatta.
Police had been warned that some kind of attack was imminent after increased “chatter” was recorded by intelligence services. One Sydney newspaper reports that the boy was a naturalised Iranian migrant who lived in Parramatta.
Access to streets around the police HQ was still limited this morning as investigators scoured the area, even dusting neighbouring buildings for fingerprints.
The NSW Premier, Mike Baird, and the Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, will jointly hold a press conference about the incident this morning.
Earlier:
A police IT expert was shot dead outside the NSW State Crime Command headquarters in Parramatta late this afternoon.
Immediately after what the police commissioner has since described as a callous murder, armed police returned fire and shot dead the unnamed police employee’s attacker. The attacker has not yet been identified.
Fairfax reported that police were expecting some form of attack and that officers based at the HQ had been ordered to carry their firearms at all times.
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione tonight said the police employee was simply leaving work when he was targeted and gunned down.
“We don’t know the motive and we don’t yet know who the gunman is but he has committed an appalling act of brutality,” Commissioner Scipione said.
There was no evidence to suggest the murder was linked to any “terrorist-related activity”, but investigations were continuing and the possibility of such a connection could not be discounted.
The ABC reported witnesses said an unidentified man wearing a “black gown” began firing at people outside the police building.
The building houses the State Crime Command which includes key crime-fighting teams such as the drug squad, the gangs squad and the Middle Eastern organised crime squad. – The Newsroom Team
Top image from ABC reporter Mohamed Taha’s Twitter feed.
About the author
