Terror suspect killed couple after tracking ‘failure’
Rex Martinich |
A terror suspect killed an elderly couple while on bail after a monitoring company’s “failure” to notify specialist police of his tracking device’s removal, a coroner has found.
Raghe Mohamed Abdi, 22, was shot dead by Queensland Police on the Logan Motorway at Drewvale in Brisbane’s south on December 17, 2020.
Officers were responding to reports of a man walking on the verge of the motorway when Abdi pulled out a knife and ran at them yelling “Allahu akbar”.
Police later discovered that Maurice Antill, 87, and his wife, Zoe Antill, 86, had been bashed and stabbed to death in their home in the nearby suburb of Parkinson.
Deputy State Coroner Stephanie Gallagher has released her findings into the three deaths following inquest hearings in July 2023 and March 2024.
Ms Gallagher found police used appropriate force when they fatally shot Abdi as he kept advancing despite the officers moving away and giving him time to comply with commands to drop his knife.
She also found Mr and Mrs Antill were killed by Abdi in an apparently random attack.
“It will be very difficult for Maurice and Zoe’s family to hear that we will never know exactly why Raghe took the actions that he did,” Ms Gallagher said in her findings.
Abdi had been on bail for charges relating to his alleged plan to fight in Syria’s civil war and been fitted with an electronic monitoring device.
The Australian-born man was also being investigated by Queensland’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team.
“He was still able to remove his EMD and evade the authorities,” Ms Gallagher said.
“This is not a satisfactory set of circumstances, particularly when Raghe was able to cause such harm while unmonitored.”
The day before killing Mr and Mrs Antill, Abdi walked into bushland at Parkinson and removed his tracking device.
A tamper alert was detected by the company monitoring the device and it was passed on to police immediately.
However, Ms Gallagher found the company did not follow instructions to notify a counter-terrorism officer via his personal mobile phone.
“The evidence before the court is that this failure was due to human error,” Ms Gallagher said.
“Again, this is less than satisfactory.
“But I am satisfied that there have been appropriate steps taken by both the monitoring company and by the relevant law enforcement agencies to prevent such failure from occurring again.”
The tamper notification was sent to the counter-terror officer’s work email address but he was off-shift at the time and did not have access to his work phone.
Ms Gallagher found it unlikely that an immediate notification to the officer would have allowed enough time to prevent Mr and Mrs Antill’s deaths.
She found Abdi suffered from mental health issues and “was becoming more and more radicalised” despite police efforts to intervene.
“I extend my sincere condolences to Maurice and Zoe’s family, and to Raghe’s family,” Ms Gallagher said.
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AAP
