The knife-wielding attacker who killed six people at a Sydney mall in a mass stabbing on Saturday may have deliberately targeted women, Australian authorities said Monday as they continued their investigation into potential motive into the country’s deadliest mass killing in years.
Three women place flowers as a tribute near the site of the attack at Bondi Junction in Sydney.
Police officials from the state of New South Wales acknowledged the surveillance video of the incident appeared to show the assailant—identified as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi—specifically targeting women.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb commented on the footage “The videos speak for themselves, don’t they? And that’s certainly a line of inquiry for us.”
Webb said it was “obvious” to her and her detectives that “the offender had focused on women and avoided the men.”
Five of the six people killed in Sunday’s attack were women and a “majority” of the injured victims in the hospital are also women, the commissioner said.
Unarmed mall security guard, Faraz Tahir, who was a refugee from Pakistan, was the only male killed in the attack.
Police officials have ruled out any terrorist links to the attack and said the assailant had a history of mental health illness. Webb said detectives will now question Cauchi’s family members to understand his potential motive.