Police had been surveilling Mr Samsudeen since his release from prison on 13 July 2021, because he was assessed to be a terrorist threat who wanted to carry out an attack in support of ISIL. Part of this surveillance included teams of ‘plain clothes’ Police surveillance officers supported by officers from the Special Tactics Group (STG).
On 3 September 2021, Police surveillance had followed Mr Samsudeen to the LynnMall Shopping Centre and were waiting outside when they saw shoppers running out of the mall. A bystander told them a man inside was stabbing people, and three STG officers ran into the supermarket to stop the attack.
“On entering the supermarket, the STG officers saw people with knife wounds and confronted the attacker. They believed Mr Samsudeen had advanced on them with the knife, posed an immediate threat of serious harm or death to them at the time they fired the shots, and posed a continuing serious threat to supermarket shoppers if they were unable to stop him. They were justified in shooting at Mr Samsudeen in self-defence under section 48 of the Crimes Act 1961”, said Authority Chair, Judge Colin Doherty.
The Authority, together with the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and the Office of the Inspectorate for the Department of Corrections, also reviewed how Police, the Security Intelligence Service and Corrections dealt with Mr Samsudeen in the years before the attack. For more information on this, see the Coordinated Review of the Management of the LynnMall Supermarket Attacker (available on the Authority’s website).
Fatal shooting of LynnMall supermarket attacker justified (PDF 446 KB)