Akpabli Januarius
The Sydney police confirmed the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on Monday 15th April 2024 whiles he was saying mass at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley just after 7pm local time.
This incident follows two serious stabbing incidents in as many days in Sydney.The police after watching the footage of the livestreamed mass, dedided to treat it as a terrorist attack. Acording to Chris Minnns, the premier of new South Wales, said the decision was taken late Monday night, the night of the incident and it was validated by the police minister. “ A strike force had been established to investigate the incident, Karen Webb, the NSW police commissioner said.
According to Chris Minns, “this is a major and serious criminal investigation. It is crucial that New South Wales policeare able to devote their resources and intellidence as well a officers to the investigation of this crime”
A live stream of the mass on the church’s website shows a 16 year old boy who approached the bishop at the altar whiles he was speaking to the congragation. With a flick knife in his hand, he stabbed the bishop’s head multiple times.
Some members of the congregation swarmed forward and pinned the boy down. His finger is reported have been cut off in the struggle. He was kept in that position until he was handed over to the police to be arrested. He was held in the church for a while for his own safety because there were a large group gathered outside to protest against the attack.
At that same time, some other members of the concregation immediately moved towards the bishop to his rescue before the footage was cut off. It was also reported that three other people were injured in the attack. The police later clashed with the crowd of several hundreds that came to the scene. The riot police were called in to forcibly move the crowd away after destroying some police cars.
It a way to restore calm, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, gathered leaders of the local Muslim, Assyrian and Melkite communities for an emergency meeting at 10.30pm on Monday, organising for them to put their names to a statement condemning the violence and calling for calm.
Hours after the declaration of the attack as a terrorist attack, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, held a joint press conference with police and security chiefs in Canberra on Tuesday morning. Extraordinary powers havebeen given to Counter-terrorism investigators – a joint team comprising NSW and federal police as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) – under NSW laws to investigate the attack, as well as conduct searches to prevent any further suspected attacks.
Acta Diurna 