A killer who went on a stabbing rampage, killing six people at a Sydney shopping centre may have visited other crowded public precincts in the days leading up to the attack.
Five women and a man were fatally stabbed by Joel Cauchi at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday.
The 40-year-old seemingly targeted women in the attack but authorities are yet to pinpoint a motive for the nation’s worst massacre in recent years.
He was shot dead after killing Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27 and 30-year-old Faraz Tahir, while Ashlee Good, 38, later died in hospital.
Reports Cauchi had visited shopping centres in western Sydney at Parramatta and Penrith in the days before the attack will be looked into, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said on Tuesday.
The investigation is probing his movements in the days and weeks before the attack and even examining his childhood to get a better understanding of what he was thinking, Webb said.
“I’ve made it clear we may not ever get an answer but we will get a picture of his movements and what he’s been doing.”
As police expand their investigation, a baby girl critically injured in the carnage is showing signs of recovery.
Seven people, including the child, remained in hospital on Monday night.
Health Minister Ryan Park said her condition had improved.
“Pleasingly, we have seen the nine-month-old baby in the children’s hospital at Randwick have her condition downgraded from critical to serious,” he said.
“We hope to have her on a ward over the next few days.”
The Sydney Opera House was lit up on Monday evening with a black ribbon in tribute to those affected by the tragedy.
Cauchi’s family say he lived with mental illness, including schizophrenia, for decades.
“He wanted a girlfriend and he has no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain,” the killer’s father Andrew Cauchi said.
NSW remier Chris Minns, who has announced a special coronial inquiry to examine the circumstances of Cauchi’s “horrifying, vile act”, also conceded his motive might never be known.
Hundreds of people were forced to flee the busy eastern Sydney site during the terrifying afternoon attack, vision of which was widely circulated on social media.
Authorities have praised the bravery of the police inspector who shot Cauchi dead, as well as that of several shoppers who confronted him during the ordeal.
A permanent memorial is being considered near the shopping centre, where a floral tribute has grown and mental health support is being offered.
Police on Monday night responded to another mass stabbing in Sydney when a bishop and at least one other man were injured during a live-streamed church service.
That incident has since been declared an act of terror.