by Queensland man Joel Cauchi has been named as the man who killed five women and one man at Bondi Junction shopping center during a mass shooting on Saturday.
The 40-year-old was shot by a police officer, Amy Scott, who responded to the attack at the busy shopping center while on duty over an unrelated matter.
Cauchi was known to police in New South Wales and Queensland for mental health issues. Police do not believe the attack on Saturday was terrorism-related or linked to any ideology.
Related: Joel Cauchi named as the Bondi Westfield attacker who stabbed shoppers
According to his social media activity, Cauchi was interested in surfing at Bondi beach as well as a range of social activities around Sydney, often leaving Google reviews for the businesses he attended.
He was diagnosed with mental illness as a teenager and received treatment but his mental health has deteriorated in recent years, police said.
Here’s what we know so far.
Who was Joel Cauchi?
Cauchi was a 40-year-old man from Queensland who led a “walking” lifestyle, moving around the state before traveling to NSW last month.
Queensland police said he was single with no children, and believed he had been living in a vehicle since arriving in Sydney.
Queensland acting assistant police commissioner Roger Lowe said Cauchi had been diagnosed with a mental illness aged 17, for which he had received treatment, but his mental health had deteriorated “over the last several years”.
His last contact with the family was in March. Police said he would “regularly text his mother with updates on his whereabouts”.
Cauchi was a member of several Facebook groups related to social activities around Sydney. He had posted in one group as recently as last week, wanting to meet others for a surf at Bondi beach.
In January he posted in a backpackers group looking for people to carpool and explore Sydney. He also seems to have had a keen interest in astrology, often posting in groups about this.
Queensland police said he was unemployed.
NSW police commissioner Karen Webb said the investigation into Cauchi would take “long days, and possibly weeks”.
The police would work to “identify the movement of the offender [on Saturday and in] the hours, the days, the weeks – his life before yesterday”, Webb told reporters on Sunday.
What was the reason for the attack?
At this stage, police have not identified a motive.
Lowe said Queensland police had been in contact with Cauchi’s family on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. The family watched footage of the attack on television and “believed that could be their son” before contacting the authorities.
Lowe said the family was cooperating with investigations and had issued a statement expressing condolences to the families and friends of the victims involved in the tragedy.
“Also, they have sent a message to the NSW police force to support the police officer who killed their son and express their concern for his welfare,” Lowe said.
Webb said it would be a “clear line of inquiry” whether or not Cauchi was targeting women.
What were his previous interactions with the police?
Webb told reporters Cauchi was known to police in NSW and Queensland.
“He has no known criminal record but he has alerted law enforcement in this state and in Queensland regarding mental health issues,” she said.
Lowe said Cauchi had never been arrested in Queensland or charged with any criminal offence, with no record in the courts of a domestic violence order.
“He’s been in contact with the police, mostly in the last four or five years,” Lowe said. “During that contact we understand here that this person suffered from mental health issues.”
The last interaction Queensland police had with Cauchi was in December 2023, when he was checked on the Gold Coast.
At a news conference, Lowe was asked if Cauchi had a knife obsession and if he ever called the police on his family for taking their knives from him. Lowe replied: “We are aware of an exit in 2023 which we are investigating.”
But Cauchi was never charged with any knife-related offence, or found to be in possession of knives in an unlawful manner that warranted prosecution, he said.
When did Cauchi come to NSW?
Cauchi is believed to have moved from Brisbane to NSW in March, a month before the attack.
He rented a “very small” storage unit in Sydney city center which Guardian Australia understands was only about one cubic meter in size.
Webb would not confirm its contents but said anything found would be part of the investigation. Materials found so far have not indicated a motive, she said.
According to social media, Cauchi was raised in Toowoomba. He left a review for a local restaurant 11 months ago.
Lowe said he had moved around Brisbane to Kangaroo Point and Carina, then back to his family’s residence – understood to be in Rockville, near Toowoomba – over the past few years.
In 2019 the Toowoomba Art Society welcomed Cauchi as a new member, according to a newsletter at the time.
How do people describe his character?
The owner of a knife sharpening business in Queensland, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Guardian Australia that Cauchi was a “strange” and “strange” man.
About three years ago, Cauchi asked the business to sharpen its two “daily knives”.
“Which I thought was strange,” said the owner. “He was neither a cook nor a butcher.
“He said, ‘Oh no, I just do a little bit of gardening in the backyard with the knives and I use them every day.'”
The business owner said Cauchi was not engaged in small talk and was “very serious”.
“His speech, he was very slurred, I guess you could say,” he said. “No real personality about it, just weird. I heard he leaves one-star reviews on a lot of people’s pages all the time, so just that kind of person”.
Some of Cauchi’s reviews included a show at the Sydney Opera House five months ago (“it’s a big deal!”), a restaurant in Elizabeth Bay seven months ago (“absolutely delicious”) and a club in Sydney a year ago (“the atmosphere”. pumping”.)
On the day of the stabbing, Cauchi had eaten a lunch of red curry chicken with rice an hour before.
Rogate Sianipar, 29, served Cauchi his lunch at Saigon Noodle in Oxford Street Mall, about 100m from Westfield, just after midday on Saturday.
“He came at 10am but he didn’t have any money so he came back at 12,” said Sianipar. “He looked confused when he ordered. Normal but confusing. He opened his wallet and paid.”
