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– Australian investigators suspect the death of an elderly couple in their Brisbane home is a “terrorism incident” committed by a knife-wielding man who was shot dead by police, officials said Friday. Raghe Abdi, 22, threatened police with a knife before being shot dead on a highway on the outskirts of Brisbane on Thursday morning, agents said. The bodies of an 87-year-old man and an 86-year-old woman were found in their home near where Abdi died later Thursday, Queensland State Police Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford said. Linfold declined to detail how they had died, but homicide detectives had found evidence that Abdi had been in the house, she said, according to the AP. The attack appears to have been random, according to the Brisbane Times; the authorities have not yet found a link between the suspect and the victims.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the known extremist had acted alone. “We had no choice but to label this as a terrorism incident,” Carroll told reporters. Australian Federal Police suspect Abdi has been influenced by the Islamic State group. He was arrested on suspicion of trying to join extremists when he attempted to leave Brisbane Airport for Somalia in May 2019. He was released without charge due to insufficient evidence, but his passport was canceled. In June 2019, he was charged with further violations, including refusing to give detectives the access code to his phone. He was out on bail and had to wear a GPS tracking device, which he cut off before he was shot.
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