http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2017/s4681559.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 06/06/2017
Reporter: James Oaten
The Brighton killing appears to be a new kind of terror attack, with the gunman using a private meeting to create a public spectacle. And it shows that terror attacks can now be carried out almost spontaneously by lone wolf attackers, with little preparation.
Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The threat of Islamist terrorism and random attacks by radicals is set to dominate a meeting between the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders at the end of the week.
Yesterday afternoon Melbourne was the latest city to become the target of an extremist. He randomly killed a man, took a woman hostage and then opened fire on police who finally shot and killed him.
The man was on parole and a lot of questions are being asked about that, as James Oaten reports.
JAMES OATEN, REPORTER: The morning after a gun battle between police and a suspected terrorist, a stone's throw from her home, Mary Ngomamiti is still shaken.
MARY NGOMAMITI, RESIDENT: We heard gunshots.
JAMES OATEN: By four o'clock yesterday, a call to 000 told police a woman was being held hostage.
By 4:30, police discovered the first victim dead in the apartment foyer.
MARY NGOMAMITI: The SWAT team was like squatting at the very front and and then we came back here and heard some gunfire and were told just run.
MAN: Oh, my God, gunshots.
(Gunfire)
MARY NGOMAMITI: As soon as the gunshots started firing they said, "Just run, just run, just run!" And everyone just kept running.
JAMES OATEN: By six o'clock, after a gunfight, three police were injured. Yacqub Khayre was dead.
GRAHAM ASHTON, VICTORIA POLICE CHIEF COMMISSIONER: He came out of the apartment with a shotgun and has commenced to fire at police.
POLICE WOMAN: Everyone get inside now!
GRAHAM ASHTON: There has been exchanged in gunfire with police and has been fatally shot by police at the scene.
JAMES OATEN: And then it emerged that Khayre had claimed he was acting for ISIS and Al Qaeda.
MARY NGOMAMITI: Scary. It is really scary. How could this happen?
MALCOLM TURNBULL, PRIME MINISTER: What is clear here is that we face a growing threat from Islamist terrorism in Australia, in our region and around the world.
MICHAEL PHELAN, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE DEPUTY COMMISSIONER: The events that happened yesterday do demonstrate that the threat from terrorism is real in this country.
GRAHAM ASHTON: We are in an unstable global environment, look at what's happened in the UK, it's happening in Europe. We are working in an environment where there is ever present risk.
JAMES OATEN: As the two hour siege came to an end, it became clear that Khayre was well-known to police.
He had been released on parole in December last year, after a lengthy prison sentence for assaulting a woman and her father during an ice-fuelled burglary.
But four years before that crime, in 2009, he was allegedly involved in a terror plot to attack the Holsworthy army base in New South Wales. While three co-accused were convicted, Khayre was not.
GREG BARTON, COUNTER-TERRORISM EXPERT, DEAKIN UNIVERSITY: This was after a group of young Somalia youths who had been persuaded to join Al Shabaab fighting in Somalia found they couldn't travel and in frustration said, "Okay, we will launch an attack in Australia."
What we know about Yacqub Khayre is he was a peripheral figure, probably not a reliable member of any plot, and therefore when evidence came to court, it was hard to put a prosecution case against him and he was acquitted in 2010.
NEWS READER (Archival): The Victorian parole system has been under enormous scrutiny since the death of Jill Meagher who was murdered by serial rapist and parolee Adrian Ernest Bayley.
JAMES OATEN: In response to public outcry in 2012, the Victorian Government commissioned a review and tightened its parole laws.
DANIEL ANDREWS, VICTORIAN PREMIER: We have the toughest parole regime anywhere in our nation. That is a good thing. It is a fact. We have about 800 less people out on parole since the Callinan review was completed.
JAMES OATEN: But it is again under pressure, given Khayre's violent history.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: How was this man on parole? He had a long record of violence. He was known to have connections, at least in the past, with violent extremism.
JAMES OATEN: ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Brighton attack. This claim might be bolstered by the instruction published by ISIS only a month ago, saying in order to gain wide publicity, jihadis should keep victims alive, making for a more lengthy and drawn-out hostage scenario.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for this attack, should we believe them?
GREG BARTON: I think we shouldn't make the mistake of not taking them seriously. It is easy to say, "Well, they claim everything" and lately they have been claiming some things that just don't make any sense.
It is also easy to say, well, they didn't know this individual. This is just a cheap and cynical way of getting publicity.
What we need to recognise is this is a deliberate marketing campaign and operational strategy that is working for them. It is very effective.
JAMES OATEN: Yacqub Khayre was a prime target for Islamist groups, having become isolated from his family and the local community, according to a family friend.
HASSAN NUR: I think Yacqub, because of, you know, there is so many kids who when they come to the country they need a lot of support and sometimes they get bad influence from the schools and the environment they live in and I think Yacqub went a bit further. He was into drugs. That is what I heard and he wasn't actually part of the family.
The family is distraught, very sad for the lives lost and the community itself is extremely distraught about what happened.
JAMES OATEN: Today, Khayre's family home was raided by police, as they continue to investigate what brought him to Brighton yesterday.
GREG BARTON: It is a familiar pattern - broken individuals who ordinarily wouldn't be seen to be capable of putting together an elaborate plot, but with the promise of going from zero to hero made by Islamic State, they do something rash.
Often they fail, but when they succeed, it can be very deadly.
