(News Article direct from the Australian Broadcasting Corp – ABC
NEWS.)
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| Inside Parramatta Mosque where the killer was radicalized. |
Raid was part of investigations into fatal shooting at Parramatta police HQ and the Muslim Shooter said to have attended a mosque shortly before attack. Farhad Jabar Khali Mohammad, 15, shot and killed 17-year police force veteran Curtis Cheng at close range outside the Parramatta police headquarters.
A senior police source told the ABC Farhad attended a mosque shortly before the shooting. The mosque believed to have been searched overnight is a few blocks away from the site of the shooting that killed Mr Cheng, 58, as he left work at 4:30pm on Friday.
A senior figure at the Parramatta mosque has confirmed that police searched the mosque to look for a black backpack which they believe Farhad used to carry the gun he used to kill Mr Cheng. Police said the warrant was undertaken by arrangement with leadership at the mosque, who gave their full assistance to police.
Earlier, a police source said the teenager had been armed with a revolver and did not know Mr Cheng. After shooting Mr Cheng, Farhad fired at officers who emerged from the building to respond to the incident, but was killed when special constables returned fire.
Earlier, senior law enforcement sources said it appeared the teenager had acted alone. "The people there (at the mosque) went looking for him after prayer," one source said. "There is a fair bit of information that he acted alone." They said after prayer he changed into a black robe.
Neil El-Kadomi from the Parramatta Mosque said Farhad visited the building in the past on occasion but he did not know him by name. "Because he was very quiet nobody noticed him," Mr El-Kadomi said. "He's not known in the mosque. He came to the mosque to heal himself before he did the crime, which is wrong."
Mr El-Kadomi said the mosque had nothing to do with the shooting and did not condone it. "The boy, he did it alone. He died and his motive died with him," he said. "You have to be an active person in society, you have to join others in building Australia. "So, we don't agree with what happened in Parramatta. We've got nothing to do with it and I hate the linking of the mosque with the crime."
(Following is the left-wing newspaper Sydney Morning Herald’s take on the raid.)
Police leave empty-handed after executing search warrant at mosque
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| Parramatta Mosque Chairman Neil El-Kadomi. |
The chairman of the Parramatta Mosque, Neil El-Kadomi, told Fairfax Media police were searching for the boy's belongings and arrived about 7.30pm on Saturday. But Mr El-Kadomi said they walked away empty-handed half an hour later.
High school student Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar was shot dead by officers after he walked up behind police accountant Curtis Cheng, 58, and shot him at close range outside the force's Parramatta headquarters.
The Iranian-born Farhad, who attended Arthur Phillip High School just 300 metres away from where the attack took place, visited the nearby Parramatta Mosque on Friday afternoon before carrying out the attack. Mr El-Kadomi said he did not know the boy, which suggested he was not a regular at the mosque. "I don't see him in the mosque very often," he said.
Friday's tragedy had nothing to do with the mosque, Mr El-Kadomi said. "He died and his secret died with him. I don't know if it's terrorism. What the boy's motive is we don't know," he said. "We are Australian and we live in Australia. The mosque has no link to the crime. The community is very shocked by what happened." He said they had not had any speakers at the mosque that afternoon.
NSW Police said in a statement on
Saturday night that it executed a warrant at a mosque in Parramatta. This was
done "by arrangement with leadership at the mosque, who provided full
assistance to police at all times".
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| Iranian-Born Muslim-Kurd Mohammad Jabar shot dead by police at the crime scene. |
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| He was wildly shooting at the policemen guarding the NSW Police Headquarters. |