Cop Tries to Shake Terror Suspect's Hand, Is Stabbed

Australian police then kill Numan Haider, 18
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 24, 2014 8:51 AM CDT
Cop Tries to Shake Terror Suspect's Hand, Is Stabbed
A forensic officer documents objects, including a blanket, at the scene of a fatal shooting at Endeavour Hills Police Station in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 24, 2014.   (AP Photo/AAP Image, Julian Smith)

Australian police shot and killed a terror suspect after he stabbed two officers yesterday, officials say. The suspect has been identified as Numan Haider, an 18-year-old Australian whose passport had been canceled amid terror concerns, the AP reports. Officers were concerned he was planning to behead police, cover their bodies in a flag, then post pictures online, following ISIS instructions, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Police asked him to come to a station in Melbourne for questioning after he'd been on their radar for three months; he'd recently been reported displaying an ISIS flag at a shopping center.

Officers met him outside the building at his request, Australia's ABC News reports; when one tried to shake his hand, he stabbed the officer, police say. Both officers are in stable condition. A search of Haider revealed another knife, as well as an ISIS flag, the Morning Herald notes. Haider's family, from Afghanistan, had recently been worried about his behavior, a family friend tells ABC. He had been linked to a radical Melbourne-based group known as al-Furqan that has previously been raided by police, but he had reportedly drifted from the group. (More Australia stories.)

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