Daily Mail: A man went on rampage in Adelaide shopping mall on Thursday afternoon
The 20-year-old randomly attacked six people including three woman
A 56-year-old victim was hospitalised with facial injuries and a concussion
The man was arrested nearby and charged with five assault offences
A man has been charged with a string of violent offences after allegedly attacking six random strangers, including three women, during a ‘vicious’ rampage at a shopping centre.
A 56-year-old woman was hospitalised with facial injuries and concussion after a young man of African appearance started randomly attacking people inside Regency Plaza shopping centre, in Adelaide’s north, at around 1pm on Thursday.
The alleged suspect, who wore boxing gloves, fled the scene but police were able to track the 20-year-old down and arrested him at a home in nearby Broadview at around 10.30pm.
He was charged with five assault offences including assault causing harm and aggravated assault.
Witnesses to the shocking daylight attack said they felt helpless as the man started randomly selecting victims before indiscriminately beating them to the ground.
One man was kicked in the head repeatedly as he lay on the ground before his attacker moved on to another victim, according to the Today Show.
Shop owner Ericson Montgomery confronted the man, despite fearing for his own life, after he saw him launch a brutal attack on a 56-year-old woman.
‘I am still in shock. I had to turn to get away form him, he was fairly close at one stage with a big weapon,’ he told the Today Show.
The shop owner said he normally wouldn’t get involved in violent altercations like this, but he was concerned the man would end up taking a shoppers life.
‘These were not just little hits, they were king hits of the most vicious kind,’ Mr Montgomery told the Adelaide Advertiser.
‘I was just trying to get him off the track to make sure he wasn’t going to kill anyone.’
He and a bakery owner warned other shoppers to stay away as the man made his way through the mall.
The man was refused bail and will appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday.
