Hours after Hassan Khalif Shire Ali killed one man and wounded two others, his father called his daughter-in-law to share one grim message: ‘This is life.’
Ali was shot by a young police officer on Friday and died on the operating table soon after, but not before he killed a beloved Melbourne icon in what has been deemed a ‘terror attack’.
But as his family stay quiet following the tragedy, high-profile members in the Muslim community have blamed the government and authorities for the deadly rampage.
High-profile members of the Muslim community have had varying reactions to Hassan Khalif Shire Ali’s terror attack in Melbourne (pictured)
Controversial Sheik Mohammed Omran (pictured) says blame should be directed to the government
Ali, 30, was an active member at the Hume Islam Youth Centre (HIYC) in Melbourne’s west in the months leading up to Friday’s attack.
Those close to him in the community, including imam Isse Musse, said Ail was growing increasingly ‘delusional’.
But HIYC Sheik Mohammed Omran said while Ali was ‘crazy’, it’s ‘bl***y Prime Minister’ Scott Morrison who should shoulder the blame.
‘He has spent billions of dollars – billions – on security service. And what is the end result? We have crazy people in the street,’ Omran told The Australian.
Ali was one of 400 ‘persons of interest’, according to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
But with funds stretched so tight, counter terrorism authorities could not spare the resources to watch him constantly.
Omran says ‘bl***y Prime Minister’ Scott Morrison (pictured) wasted money on counter-terror measures
Instead, he drove to Bourke Street in his truck, which was filled with open ‘barbecue-style gas bottles’, primed to cause an explosion.
When he crashed the car, he set it alight and stabbed the man who came to his aid, later revealed later to be coffee magnate Sisto Malaspina, 74. He died from his wounds.
Ali was shot after lunging at two police officers with his knife, while a homeless man dubbed ‘trolley man’ tried to ram him with a shopping cart.
Omran pointed to the fact that pedestrians felt the need to get involved as further evidence of police incompetence.
‘After he jumped in the street and started waving his knife to them – sometimes they are running after him and sometimes they are running after them, and even the public interfered to take his attention because the police, they couldn’t handle him.’
Ali stabbed three men in the rampage, including a 24-year-old security guard in the neck (pictured)
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton (pictured) said his officers performed ‘bravely’
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told Neil Mitchell’s breakfast radio program 3AW the young officers at the scene acted as he would have.
‘In my view they acted very bravely on the day and certainly in line with their training,’ he said.
A young officer within Victoria Police shared the sentiment.
‘They honestly handled it as well as they could,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Those two blokes will never have a harder job in their career.’
After Ali died, police raided the Meadow Heights bungalow he shared with his Turkish wife, believed to be aged in her 20s, and their infant son.
Their home was a converted garage in the backyard of an unassuming family who rented it to Ali and his wife.
Ali (pictured) moved into a bungalow with his wife about four months after she moved there
Police raided two properties on the day after the attack, interviewing Ali’s wife at their home (pictured)
Only hours after Ali stormed out of the home for the last time, the daughter of the elderly woman who lived in the main house delivered a message to his wife.
She had received a phone call from Ali’s father.
‘He said ‘I’m watching the news and tell her … not to panic, it’s not her problem, this is life’. That’s all he said,’ the woman told The Age.
She said Ali’s wife moved into the bungalow six months before the tragedy after separating from her husband.
Her father, who remained in Turkey, was due to come and take her home with him on the day of the Bourke Street attack.
Ali beat him to it, moving into the bungalow with his wife about two months ago.
A message from Ali’s father to his daughter-in-law hours after the tragedy said: ‘This is life’
Ali was seen ‘storming out’ of the family home in the days leading up to the attack, neighbours told The Age.
His wife desperately pursued him.
She was initially reported missing in the hours after the attack, but she was located the day after and interviewed by police.