The father of the 40-year-old man who stabbed six people to death at Sydney mall, even attacking a nine-month-old baby, has said that he was “loving a monster.”
Andrew Cauchi, the father of Joel Cauchi said he was “heartbroken” over the attack and did not know what drove his son to kill. “This is so horrendous, I can’t even explain it. I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do or say to bring back the dead,” the anguished father told news agency AFP.
Police have said that Cauchi, who attacked over nine people in the busy shopping centre, chasing them with a large knife in his hand, was suffering from mental illnesses. CCTV cameras inside the mall show him in an Australian rugby league jersey running around as injured people lay lifeless on the floor.
His father said he did everything in his power to help him when he was diagnosed, making himself a “servant” to him. “He is my son, and I am loving a monster. To you he is a monster, to me, he was a very sick boy,” he said.
While Sydney police are investigating why he attacked women and seemed to avoid men on his rampage on Saturday, his father has offered an explanation.
“He wanted a girlfriend, he’s got no social skills and he was frustrated,” he said
The carnage that unfolded at the Westfield shopping complex was a rare incident in Australia, a country with some of the strictest gun and knife laws in the world.
The horror finally came to an end after Inspector Amy Scott shot him dead. The woman officer, who has been hailed as a hero, was seen sprinting across the mall, chasing the attacker.
Five women and one man — the mall security guard — were killed. The victims included a new mother who handed her wounded infant to strangers in desperation before dying of her injuries. The nine-month-baby is in a critical condition.
Police have denied that the attack was an act of terrorism.
