Phillip Island family caught up in Melbourne stabbing incident

A PHILLIP Island family, visiting Melbourne on Tuesday this week, August 25, have been the victims of a stabbing incident.

According to police, a man has been arrested, following the assault of two people in Melbourne’s CBD today.

Officers were told a boy was punched to the upper body on Spencer Street near the corner of La Trobe Street about 1pm.

A woman with the boy at the time, intervened and was stabbed to the upper body.

The 10-year-old boy from Bass Coast area and the 30-year-old Cowes woman were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police in the vicinity swiftly arrested a 27-year-old Sunshine West man and seized a pair of scissors.

He remains in custody to be interviewed by police.

It is believed the parties were not known to each other.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

People who intervened 'heroic' said police

The incident, outside the Melbourne West Police Station, was the lead story on the nightly news on a number of channels.

Police Superintendent Zorka Dunstan was interviewed on Channel 9 News:

“Around 1 o'clock today, we had a mother and her three kids just walking outside the Melbourne West Police Station on the footpath. She was walking in a northerly direction. As she was walking north, just past the police sign, we had a male, he's 27 years old, he's from Sunshine North. He was walking south. As he passed him, he just randomly punched the 10-year-old boy to the upper body.

“Once he did that, he kept walking south. As he's kept walking, he's then turned around and he's grabbed the mother in a headlock, and he started to stab her repeatedly with a pair of scissors, mainly towards the back and mainly on her back left shoulder as well.

“After that's occurred, we had a member of the public, a citizen, immediately intervene. He's jumped onto the 27-year-old male. He's grabbed him off the female, and in addition, we had two other citizens also come and assist him with pinning this male down.

“Within a minute, we had police from the Melbourne West Police Station quickly attend and take over the arrest, and we were able to arrest the male and take him into our custody immediately.

“So, the 30-year-old mother who sustains some injuries. She's been taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, not with life-threatening injuries. She was in fairly good spirits, considering the circumstances, and her 10-year-old son was also taken by ambulance, to the Royal Children's Hospital just as a precaution."

“So, non-life-threatening or serious injuries at this stage, that we are aware of, and we also had the two other kids who were witness to the attack as well. Fortunately, they weren't injured, but obviously they have been impacted witnessing such an incident, especially occurring to their mother and their brother as well.

“Yeah, absolutely, a random attack. So, the 27-year-old male, he's known to police, but not with an extensive history. He's known to police here and in New South Wales and Western Australia as well. But there's nothing to suggest that it’s other than completely random.

“Look, any offending of this nature is horrific anywhere, so not just outside the police station, anywhere in the city or outside the city. We're horrified by it.

“I'm just grateful that we had people assist immediately. There's no doubt that if they didn't assist, it would have been a lot more serious.

“I actually attended down there. I was in my office upstairs, saw what was happening. I came down. One of the boys, he’s 11-year-old, he was crying, absolutely impacted by what he saw. I gave him a hug because you know I was impacted just watching how he reacted.

“Anyway, after we spent some time with him, he's been grateful for the fact that people attended quickly, and as I said to him, how lucky that we had such good people intervene and help his mum. So, he was really grateful for that.

“Look, we don't know if he's on drugs or not. Whether he's suffering some sort of mental health issue. We haven't yet interviewed him. He's not fit for interview yet. So, we do assume that it is some sort of a mental health episode.

“The first male actually jumped on his back and just pulled him off the mum, and then the other two assisted by grabbing onto him as well, and then they pinned him onto the floor. It was heroic. Like without a doubt, without their intervention, it could have been a lot worse. So, we are so grateful for their assistance, and I'm sure the family are as well.”

Superintendent Dunstan said she knew the family was from Cowes, but she didn’t know the reason why they were in Melbourne.