Brighton siege, Melbourne – Yacqub Khayre
On 5 June 2017, at the Buckingham International Serviced Apartments in Brighton, Melbourne, Yacqub Khayre bound a woman he had booked through an escort service. At about 4.10pm he shot receptionist Kai Hao dead in the reception area. Mr Hao was born in China and had become an Australian citizen in 2013. At about 5.41pm Khayre called Channel 7 and said, according to the coroner: “This is the Brighton hostage. This is for IS, this is for Al-Qaeda”. At about 6.02pm he ran out firing a sawn-off shotgun. Special Operations Group officers shot him dead, and three officers were seriously wounded in the exchange of fire. No bomb was found. Khayre had been on parole since 14 December 2016, wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, and had been acquitted in 2010 over the 2009 Holsworthy Barracks plot.
The ABC reported that Islamic State claimed one of its "soldiers" was responsible. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton treated it as a "terrorism incident", but said the IS claim was "the sort of thing they jump up and say a lot". On 6 June, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: "It is a terrorist attack". He asked: "But he was a known violent offender. How was he on parole?" He said parole would be "a high priority at the COAG meeting."
In findings delivered on 20 July 2023, Coroner Audrey Jamieson wrote: "I am unable to make a definitive finding on whether the action he took was tantamount to a terror attack or that it was motivated by extremist ideology." She found that the parole decision and conditions were reasonable and that his supervision on parole was adequate. She made no adverse findings against any party.
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