(Newser)
– Australian detectives suspect the death of an elderly couple in their Brisbane home is a “terrorism incident” perpetrated by a man armed with knives who was shot dead by police, officials said on Friday . Raghe Abdi, 22, threatened police with a knife before being shot dead on a road on the outskirts of Brisbane on Thursday morning, officers said. The bodies of an 87-year-old man and an 86-year-old woman were found at his home Thursday near where Abdi died, said Tracy Linford, deputy commissioner for Queensland state police. Linfold refused to detail how they had died, but homicide detectives had found evidence that Abdi had been in the house, he said, according to the AP. It appears that the attack was random, according to the Brisbane Times; authorities have not yet found any link between the suspect and the victims.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the well-known extremist had acted alone. “We had no choice but to declare it an incident of terrorism,” Carroll told reporters. Australian federal police suspect Abdi had been influenced by the Islamic State group. He was arrested on suspicion of trying to join extremists when he tried 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 other crimes, including refusing to give detectives his phone access code. He was released on bail and had been forced to carry a GPS tracking device, which he had cut off before being shot.
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