Australian boy killed by police was in deradicalization program since causing school explosion

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 16-year-old boy who was shot dead by police after stabbing a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth had been engaged in a deradicalization program since he detonated a homemade explosive device in a school toilet block two years ago, police said on Tuesday.

The boy had injured a man with a kitchen knife in a hardware store parking lot on Saturday night before police killed him with a single shot. The boy had told associates in a text message: “I am going on the path of jihad tonight for the sake of Allah.”

It was the third high-profile knife crime to shock Australia in recent weeks after two Assyrian Orthodox clerics were injured in a Sydney church and a Sydney shopping mall rampage in which six people were killed and another dozen were wounded.

Western Australia Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the boy killed in Perth had been a voluntary participant of the federally funded Countering Violent Extremism program since 2022 when he caused an explosion at a toilet at the Rossmoyne Senior High School, which he attended. The boy had received treatment for mental health issues as well as extremist inclinations.

“To be in a CVE program automatically says that we have concerns about his behavior and his thinking,” Blanch told Perth Radio 6PR.

“This is really important and it is highly successful but, sadly, it’s not perfect,” Blanch added.

Social media video of the noise and flash of an explosion in a toilet and of boys running from the scene has been published by news media outlets in recent days.

The state education department said no one was injured and no damage was caused by the explosion. All proper protocols were followed with the then 14-year-old student where there were concerns