The father of a 40-year-old man who stabbed six people to death in a Sydney shopping center and even attacked a nine-month-old baby says he “fell in love with a monster”.
Joel Couch’s father, Andrew Couch, said he was “heartbroken” by the attack and didn’t know what drove his son to kill. “It’s so terrible, I can’t even explain it. I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do and there’s nothing I can do to bring the dead back to life,” the anguished father told AFP.
Couch, who police said suffered from mental illness, attacked nine people in a busy shopping center and chased them armed with a large knife. CCTV cameras inside the mall showed him running around in an AFL jersey as the injured man lay lifeless on the floor.
His father said that when he was diagnosed, he went out of his way to help him and made himself his “servant.” “He was my son and I loved a monster. To you he was a monster and to me he was a very sick boy,” he said.
While Sydney police are investigating why he attacked women and appeared to avoid men during Saturday’s rampage, his father has offered an explanation.
“He wanted a girlfriend but he had no social skills and he was frustrated,” he said
The massacre at Westfield shopping center was a rare event in Australia, which has some of the strictest gun and knife laws in the world.
The horror finally ended when Inspector Amy Scott shot and killed him. The female police officer, who was hailed as a hero, rushed through the mall chasing her attacker.
Five women and one man – a mall security guard – were killed. Victims include a new mother who, in desperation, handed her injured baby to a stranger and then died from her injuries. The nine-month-old baby is in critical condition.
Police denied the attack was an act of terrorism.
