Everything We Know So Far About Last Week's Parammatta Shooting and This Morning's Terror Raids

What began as an isolated incident outside NSW Police Headquarters has expanded into the arrest of a high school boy over an allegedly threatening Facebook post, and a coordinated multi-suburb raid involving over two hundred police.

Here's what we know.

The Shooting

Last Friday 15-year-old Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar fired a point blank shot into the back of the head of Curtis Cheng, killing him. Cheng was a father of two, an accountant, and 17-year NSW Police Force employee. The shooting took place as he was leaving the state's police headquarters in Parramatta.

Farhad reportedly visited a nearby mosque to pray before he carried out his act.

As relayed by senior police sources to 7 News, Farhad walked into the lobby of the HQ, picked Cheng as his victim, followed him outside, and then shot him. Upon hearing that shot special constables whose job it is to protect government buildings ran outside to confront the perpetrator.

A bystander's video of Farhad from around this time shows the teenager agitatedly walking the street outside the police station. Reaching the end of the headquarters, where the building meets Goodstart Early Learning Centre, Farhad turns around and heads back. As he does the constables exit the building, looking for the shooter. Turning a corner they surprise Farhad and he them. A short shootout occurs, it appears Farhad fires the first round. One of the constables' bullets fatally wounds the teenager.

In the following days the police confirmed that they believed the act to be politically motivated, or a "terror-related" attack. Initially there were also suggestions and analysis conveying the impression that Farhad was a lone wolf, and not acting at the direct behest of others.

The Shooter

Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar was a naturalised Australian teen with an Iraqi-Kurdish background living in North Parramatta. After the shootings it is believed it was Farhad's older brother who tipped the police off as to his identity. There was no warning that Farhad would kill. He had no criminal background, and the police had no information that he posed a threat.

According to news.com.au police sources had indicated their headquarters on Charles Street Parramatta had been "cased" and that there'd been "chatter" about a potential terrorist attack. But there were no specifics over who, how, or when such a plot might unfold.

A letter found in the backpack Farhad ditched before he shot Cheng contained extremist rants, and the phrase "Let the blood flow on the street."

On Monday Farhad's body was released from Glebe morgue and returned to his family. According to the Telegraph, his family wants their son to be buried overseas, in their homeland of Kurdistan.

Police Investigate The Mosque

On Sunday police searched the mosque Farhad is supposed to have visited before carrying out his attack. At the time the police said a statement that, "The warrant was undertaken by arrangement with leadership at the mosque who provided full assistance to police at all times."

The president of the mosque has told the ABC's 7.30 program that "[We] don't know the boy, or where he lived, because he's not a regular person in the congregation." He also stated that should he ever suspect someone in the mosque was guilty of trying to radicalise others he would report it to the police immediately. "Going to the police straight away better than to be sorry later."

The same western Sydney mosque was visited by plain clothes policemen months before, as the "Street Dawah" movement that prayed there was understood to have links to some of the men arrested last year as part of Australia's largest ever counter-terror raids.

No further details were released but around Sunday night reports came out that Farhad's sister might have flown out of Australia last Thursday, possibly to Istanbul. Turkey is, among other things, a common transit point for people seeking to go to Syria.

High School Boy Arrested

On Tuesday morning police detained a Year 10 student who went to the same school as Farhad (Arthur Philip High), while on the boy was heading to class. He had allegedly posted a link on Facebook to the NSW Police Force's video of Commissioner Andrew Scipione addressing the Parramatta community about the shooting. As can be seen from the screen capture by the ABC there is a note accompanying the link that reads: "Bahahja (sic) fuck you you motherfucker Yallah merryland (sic) police station is next hope they all burn in hell".

Police were seen looking through the student's phone, at the time he told the ABC that the police had taken offence to him videoing them.

That night the boy was arrested from his home in Guildford, and charged with "assaulting and intimidating police, two counts of resisting arrest, and using a carriage to menace, harass, and offend." According to the ABC a neighbour was surprised, telling reporters she was, "Shocked. What can we do? I know we have to be scared but I've known the people."

"They seem quiet people, very nice people. We've never heard anything about them that's bad."

Police Raid

At 6:00am AEDT this morning police launched a synchronised raid across Western Sydney. Five men have been arrested and police allege four of them have a connection to Farhad's shooting of Cheng. The fifth, a twenty-four-year-old from Merrylands, was arrested but not detained for an outstanding warrant for identity fraud and other fraud matters.

In Wentworthville eighteen-year-old Raban Alou was arrested from the same home where Kawa, his older brother was arrested last year during the Sydney anti-terror raids. Kawa was released soon after his arrest without charge.

Over in Marsfield police arrested another target of those previous raids, a former student of Arthur Phillip High, twenty-two-year-old Mustafa Dirani. On Wednesday evening police announced that Mustafa had also been released.

A sixteen-year-old boy was also arrested; he is a current student of the same school.

Last year's raids were sparked by reports of a plot to behead a member of the public at random. This year's raids were sparked by Farhad's shooting of the seemingly randomly chosen Curtis Cheng.

NSW Police Force Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn has told the press the investigation is ongoing and information will be limited due to legal and investigative constraints.

Things being investigated include whether or not one of these men supplied Farhad with his weapon, and whether and to what extent they had influence on the teenager.

Police have reached out to Turkish counterparts to find Farhad's sister, though there is at this point no suggestion of any criminal activity or intent on her part. To date no terrorist organisation has come forth to claim responsibility for the actions of Farhad.

Responses To The Shooting

New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the Premier of NSW, Mike Baird, have both received media and public praise for their response.

Prominent Muslim leader Dr. Jamal Rifi has said there was a "quantum leap" difference between their approach and the approach of the ousted PM Tony Abbott. The difference seems to be more in style than policy. With their sensitive tack with the Muslim community proving a clear contrast to Abbott's harsh lecturing.

In tune with current trends, much of the media's response has been to highlight the dangers of radicalisation, the mindset of those radicalised, and what preventative measures can be taken.

Not surprisingly News Limited papers and the opinion makers who write for them have come out with a harder line in their expression of opposing takes.

Anti-mosque campaigners have also made their voices heard. Members of the United Patriots Front beheaded a dummy outside the Bendigo Council offices on Sunday, in part to protest the shooting but also to protest the approval of a Bendigo Mosque.

Also, according to some reports, the mosque in Parramatta has been threatened.

Such threats are no laughing matter. In April of this year there was an attempted arson attack of a mosque in Toowoomba. At the time police stated that had the fire taken hold the results could have been "catastrophic."

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