Confronting vision from on board a Transperth bus appears to show the moments before a boy was stabbed in the chest by a teenager on ANZAC Day.
A fight had broken out between two girls close to the Joondalup train station earlier on Saturday, which is close to the local shops and a common meeting ground used by teenagers on the train line.
The fight spilled over onto a nearby street, with mobile phone vision catching the moment a group of teenagers boarded the Transperth service on Grand Boulevard and lunged at two boys towards the back of the bus.
Yelling can be heard as one boy climbs over a seat and a fight breaks out, with one of the teenagers warning the others to “f–k off” before screaming breaks out and some of the group get off the bus and run.
Police said it was at this moment one of the teenagers was stabbed, and the 16-year-old victim later collapsed.
He is currently in a serious but stable condition at Fiona Stanley Hospital, after he was rushed there by ambulance in a critical condition.
A witness told 9 News Perth he had helped the victim in the aftermath of the alleged stabbing.
“There was a lot of screaming and chaos happening,” he said.
“This guy has just pulled out the knife after the fight and stabbed him in the side.
“I took off my jumper and held on his wound for about 20 minutes while waiting for the ambulance, and he was … seizing and very cold.”
In a statement, a WA Police spokesperson said a 16-year-old from Carramar in Perth’s north had been charged with intent to cause grievous bodily harm or prevent arrest wounded or caused grievous bodily harm.
The alleged attacker was granted bail before Perth Children’s Court on Sunday, and his father claimed to reporters the charges were “all bulls–t”.
The incident comes just four months after three teenage boys were charged after forcing Ellenbrook Secondary College into lockdown after allegedly coming onto its grounds with an axe, a knife and a baton.
A boy at the school was stabbed under his right arm, and the three boys were arrested.
The court heard one of his young attackers had actually been criminally charged prior to the incident for being armed with a sword in Cockburn.
Both incidents came just as the state government boasted about its one-year milestone of Jack’s Law – a law aimed at getting edged weapons off the streets after a Queensland boy who was stabbed in 2019.
The WA government implemented Jack’s Law in 2024, which allows police to scan anyone for a concealed weapon without a warrant.
The government called it the nation’s “toughest and strictest knife crime laws”, and said it had resulted in more than 228 edged weapons removed from the community, and more than 1000 people charged.
