In Australia: Police arrest 4 over suspected “terrorism” murder

FIVE people have now been arrested in relation to the fatal shooting of Curtis Cheng outside Police Headquarters at Parramatta last Friday.

Counterterrorism police officers arrested four people this morning in connection with a teenager’s fatal shooting of a police accountant last Friday, an attack that officials have described as terrorism.

Dean Lewins/AP Police search a man in Western Sydney on Wednesday, days after they said a 15-year-old shot a civilian police worker in the back of the head on the way out the door at a Parramatta police building. The killer, 15-year-old Farhad Jabar, was shot dead by police.

New South Wales Police deputy commissioner Catherine Burn said: “We suspect that a terrorism event has occurred and we suspect that they may have a few knowledge”.

WHILE police on Wednesday said they were yet to establish a motive behind the attack on Friday, Mr Baird said he was concerned about religious radicalisation in the state’s schools.

A 17-year-old Guildford boy who attended the same school as Jabar was charged on Tuesday with several offences including assaulting and threatening police.

The basis for the latest police raids was laid by yesterday’s banner headline in Murdoch’s tabloid Daily Telegraph, “Police believe gunman was no lone wolf but part of extremist pack”. The same uncertainty applies regarding the target – was Cheng personally targeted, or he was just a random person who happened to have the wrong job in the wrong place?

Nevertheless, can I assure you, though, that our security agencies and our Commonwealth partners and all our jurisdictions, we are all working together to keep people as safe as we possibly can’.

Ms Burn acknowledged that police had no idea he was a threat, despite his alleged association with those investigated during last year’s terror raids.

Ms Burn said it was a “very serious concern that in the heart of our community there is attack planning that is underway”.

NSW Police are set to hold a press conference about the raids at 11:30 a.m. today.

The arrested men will then be questioned on their possible involvement in the Parramatta shooting and “links with the Islamic State”, News.com.au reports. Three of the homes raided had been subjected to a similar “counter-terror” operation in September previous year.

“Authorities on Sunday searched a mosque Jabar is believed to have attended with police saying a few of those arrested Wednesday also used the facility”.

‘The supply of the firearm is a major part of our investigation and that is a line of inquiry we’ll be undertaking with these people today, ‘ she said.