4 arrested in connection with Sydney police worker's killing

[webfact]

4 arrested in connection with Sydney police worker's killing
KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press

SYDNEY (AP) — Police arrested four people during a series of raids Wednesday in connection with the slaying of a civilian police worker, which officials have said they believe was linked to terrorism.

More than 200 officers swooped into homes in western Sydney and arrested the men, aged 16 to 22, as part of their investigation into the killing of Curtis Cheng, New South Wales police said. A fifth man was also arrested during the raids on unrelated fraud charges.

Cheng, a police finance worker, was shot by an Iranian teenager while leaving work in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta last Friday. The killer, 15-year-old Farhad Jabar, was shot dead by police.

Police believe the killing was politically motivated and therefore linked to terrorism, though they say Jabar's specific motivations remain unclear and he has not been linked to any terror group. They also didn't know whether Cheng was personally targeted, or targeted more generally because he was a police employee.

Police don't know what the association might be between Jabar and the men who were arrested on Wednesday, and Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn declined to say what part officials believe they played in last week's shooting beyond allegedly having knowledge of the attack. But police don't believe Jabar acted alone.

"Today's operation is a clear indication of our determination to actually find out who murdered Curtis Cheng and to take all necessary action that we possibly can," Burn told reporters. "It's a very, very serious concern that in the heart of our community there is attack planning that is underway and that may have led to what we saw on Friday."

Some of the men arrested Wednesday were also investigated during a massive series of counterterrorism raids in Sydney last year, Burn said.

Jabar, who was born in Iran and lived with his family in the Parramatta area, was not on officials' radar before Cheng was shot. Burn acknowledged that police had no idea he was a threat, despite his alleged association with those investigated during last year's terror raids. That prompted questions about whether police should have been paying closer attention to him.

"For 24 hours, 7 days a week, people go and do certain things and it's a reality of life we can't be everywhere with everybody at every single second of the day," Burn said.

Neil Gaughan, acting deputy commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, confirmed reports that Australian police were working with officials in Turkey to locate Jabar's sister, who is believed to have flown to Istanbul shortly before Cheng was killed. Gaughan said there is nothing to suggest she was involved in the attack, but police want to talk to her about what she may have known about her brother's plans.

Australia has been struggling to cope with a string of homegrown terrorism crimes involving teenagers. In September 2014, an 18-year-old was shot dead by police after stabbing two counterterrorism police officers in Melbourne. In April, several teens were arrested on suspicion of plotting an Islamic State group-inspired terrorist attack at a Veterans' Day ceremony. And in May, police arrested a 17-year-old in Melbourne and accused him of plotting to detonate three homemade pipe bombs.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-10-07

[NeverSure]

Kudos to the Australians for calling it what it is and taking a no nonsense approach.

[macca3248]

Deport the whole bloody lot back to where they came from !

[ICECOOL]

Chilling feeling. I walked in and out of those doors many times in a former life. No better motivation than catching the killers of one of your own.

[Songhua]

A woman, apparently a relative of one of the arrested men, snatched reporters' microphones and eggs were thrown at a Channel 9 reporter at the scene of the raids:

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/10/07/10/39/eggs-thrown-at-9news-reporter-as-tensions-flare-outside-sydney-home-raided-by-police

[Nemesis7]

Who gave the gun on his hand? Who motivated? Arrest them all and serve justice.

[weegee]

The song..."True Blue" came into mind, when i heard that story this morning....

I could imaging how much effort has gone into catching all involved, by the Police....Mates protect mates.....good work fellas

[Elfin]

 

Who gave the gun on his hand? Who motivated? Arrest them all and serve justice.

 

The latest I have heard was that it was a 15 y/o Smith & Wesson bought from a ME crime gang, perhaps at the mosque that he prayed at before doing the murder.

[anon4546543]

The dead jihadi moslem lad has been linked to his school friends and a mosque in Parramatta. The chilling thing about the report is the New South Wales police Commissioner reported that there are so many potential terrorist cells and police have difficulty monitoring them all. Send all the creeps from this vile so called religion back home if they are on visas. Lock them up if they are not.

[copa8]

The dead jihadi moslem lad has been linked to his school friends and a mosque in Parramatta. The chilling thing about the report is the New South Wales police Commissioner reported that there are so many potential terrorist cells and police have difficulty monitoring them all. Send all the creeps from this vile so called religion back home if they are on visas. Lock them up if they are not.

Agree. Never read about immigrants from China, HK, Korea, Singapore, etc committing acts of terrorism.

Hopefully, Australia won't look like Western Europe soon.

[Smithson]

The dead jihadi moslem lad has been linked to his school friends and a mosque in Parramatta. The chilling thing about the report is the New South Wales police Commissioner reported that there are so many potential terrorist cells and police have difficulty monitoring them all. Send all the creeps from this vile so called religion back home if they are on visas. Lock them up if they are not.

Agree. Never read about immigrants from China, HK, Korea, Singapore, etc committing acts of terrorism.

Hopefully, Australia won't look like Western Europe soon.

Nonetheless they have been on the receiving end of plenty of racism in Australia, any excuse I suppose. Now Pauline Hanson doesn't even complain about them, targeting Muslims instead.

If any info comes out as to what political motive the 15 year old had, pls post. The article seems to suggest police are pretty clueless, even after raiding 200 homes.

[Songhua]

http://www.9news.com.au/National/2015/10/08/03/00/Teen-brothers-allegedly-gave-gun-to-schoolboy-killer-Farhad-Jabar

Teen brothers allegedly gave gun to schoolboy.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Songhua

[simple1]

The police in Australia could raid 200.000 homes and still be clueless. The reason why the press is so interwoven with the cops in Australia is because they rely so heavily on information from the public..

They are useless on their own.

The previous head of ASIO and current security personnel have stated they receive a great deal of info from within the Australian Muslim community. Luckily many of the Islamist and their sympathisers still use social media that assists in tracking some of their activity.

Three of the four arrested have now been released without charge, so sounds like the arrests were a trawling exercise of known sympathisers. They could be detained & charged later once police have finished their investigation of material found at their locations.

From public domain info the police currently appear to be concentrating on finding the person/s who provided the weapon to the killer.

[waldroj]

Deport the whole bloody lot back to where they came from !

Macca3248,

There's probably a lot of Thais saying the same thing about us!