Australian officials: ‘Radicalized’ 16-year-old stabbed man before he was shot dead by police

Western Australian police shot and killed a “radicalized” 16-year-old boy with a knife who had stabbed a man in a Perth car park, police and the state premier says.

The teenager “rushed” at police who responded by shooting him twice with Tasers before firing a single fatal shot, they say.

“There are indications he had been radicalized online. But I want to reassure the community at this stage it appears he acted solely and alone,” Premier Roger Cook says.

Police received a call late on Saturday from a male warning that he was going to commit “acts of violence” but without giving his name or location, the state’s police commissioner, Col Blanch, tells reporters.

Within minutes, another emergency call alerted police that a “male with a knife was running around the car park” in Willetton, a southern suburb of Perth, he says.

The “middle-aged” man who was stabbed was in a “serious” but stable condition and appeared to be doing well, the police commissioner says.

The boy had “mental issues but also online radicalization issues,” he says.

The attacker had for the past couple of years been part of a “countering violence extremism program” for people who show signs of “religious or issues-motivated” concerns, he says.