A 15-year-old was arrested after he attacked an Assyrian Orthodox church congregation in Wakeley, Sydney. Image source: Christ The Good Shepherd Church, via Facebook.
New South Wales police arrested a 15-year-old male after he attacked an Assyrian Orthodox church congregation with a knife in Sydney on Monday, 15 April.
The attack took place around 7pm during a livestreamed service at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley — only two days after six people died in a mass stabbing at Bondi Junction Westfield.
At least four people sustained injuries, though police indicated that none were life-threatening.
Among the injured are Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, Father Isaac Royel and the teenager, who allegedly severed his own finger during the attack.
Police were unable to leave the scene until after midnight as the bishop’s followers gathered outside the church.
The crowd demanded that police hand over the teenager to them before the suburb broke into riots.
Over 100 police reinforcements were called in — two officers were hospitalised, and several police vehicles were damaged.
It took more than three hours for paramedics to leave the church.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters on Tuesday that tensions between religious communities likely motivated the attack.
The teenager reportedly said in Arabic that he would not have come to the church if the bishop had not insulted his religion and the Prophet Muhammad.
Bishop Emmanuel has a large following in the community and online, with over 154,000 followers on Instagrams and more than 25 million views on TikTok.
His sermons on social media have previously condemned Islam, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, and Covid vaccine mandates.
In 2014, he left the official Assyrian Orthodox church to form his own over doctrinal issues.
Emmanuel has also called for Muslims to convert to Christianity.
“We allege there’s a degree of premeditation on the basis that this person has travelled to that location, which is not near his residential address… with a knife and subsequently the bishop and the priest have been stabbed,” said Webb.
“After consideration of all the material, I declared that it was a terrorist attack.”
NSW police have formed a joint counterterrorism task force with the Australian Intelligence Security Organisation (ASIO) and Australian Federal Police (AFP).
“At this stage, it looks like the actions of an individual,” said ASIO director-general Mike Burgess.
“At this point, there is no indication of anyone else involved, but that remains an open investigation.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns issued a statement with local Muslim and Christian religious leaders to condemn the violence and call for peace.
