Sydney stabbing attacker who killed six people named as Joel Cauchi

Joel Cauchi moved to Sydney a month before the attack

The man who killed six people in a knife attack at a shopping centre in Australia has been named as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi.

He had moved to Sydney just a month before the attack at Westfield mall at Bondi Junction in the east of the city.

His family contacted authorities when they saw footage of the attack on television.

Cauci, from Queensland, was known to authorities, but had not been arrested or charged before he committed the attack on Saturday, police said.

He was identified by New South Wales police on Sunday after he was killed by a police officer.

The lone knifeman attacked shoppers on Saturday afternoon and police said they do not think the attack was motivated by terrorism.

Four women and a man in his 30s, a security guard at the shopping centre, died at the scene. One of the victims was Dr Ashlee Good, a mother whose last act was reportedly to thrust her nine-month-old baby to a stranger begging them to save her, after she was stabbed in her pram.

Queensland Police assistant commissioner Roger Lowe told reporters in Brisbane that Cauchi was ‘itinerant’, meaning he regularly travelled from place to place with no fixed address.

Ashlee Good was a highly regarded osteopath who had just returned to work from maternity leave (Picture: Instagram)

Mr Lowe said his force was assisting police in New South Wales with investigations.

‘He has been in contact with the police, primarily in the last four to five years would be the most contact we have had with him. During that contact we are aware that this individual has suffered from mental health,’ said Mr Lowe.

Mr Lowe said the attacker’s family has co-operated with police and had sent a message to the New South Wales police ‘with respect to support the police officer who has killed their son and are expressing their concerns for her welfare’.

New South Wales police are investigating the man, who moved to Sydney a month before the attack, hiring a ‘very small’ storage container in Sydney which police have ‘worked through’.

This is a developing news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.

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