Man with Mental Health History Goes on Stabbing Rampage in Mall | Joel Cauchi Case Analysis

oh this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Joel couchi just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the crime then offer my analysis Joel couchi was born born sometime around 1983 and lived in tumba Queensland Australia this is 2 hours West of Brisbane he lived with his father Andrew and his mother Michelle in 2000 when Joel was 17 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in addition to this disorder he used substances at various times in his life including psychedelics and methampetamine Joel graduated from high school and attended the University of Queensland according to his Facebook page he had worked as an English tutor but it appears as though this claim is not true Joel lived in Brisbane kangaroo point and Karina before returning to his parents home in tumba at some point Joel departed again the last time his parents saw him was in December 2023 this same month he was stopped by the police in Queensland but no rest was made he was well known to law enforcement they were aware of his mental health challenges for about 5 years sometime around March 2024 Joel traveled about 10 hours south to Sydney in New South Wales there is no evidence that Joel was employed he was living in a motor vehicle and in hosts in the waterl neighborhood of Sydney Joel rented a very small storage unit Joel's mother would occasionally get a text message from him with an update the last message was sent in March the same month he moved to Sydney now moving to the timeline of the crime on Saturday April 13 2024 at 10:05 a.m. 40-year-old Joel couchi was in Bondi Junction which is in the eastern suburbs of Sydney he stopped at a restaurant on Oxford Street called Saigon Noodles Joel ordered chicken curry but departed after failing to produce a method of payment at 12:22 p.m. he returned ordered the same meal and paid for it in cas Cas at 3:10 p.m. Joel couchi entered the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center this is a massive sstory 1.4 million ft Mall containing over 300 stores Joel left the shopping center but returned 10 minutes later now he was carrying a knife it was about 1T in length over the next few minutes Joel went on a rampage he ran around the mall erratically lunging at and stabbing people in the the shopping center some people he ignored many people ran away from him and others confronted him for example a French construction worker blocked Joel from ascending an escalator by holding a metal post an officer named Amy Scott and a few customers in the mall pursued Joel Amy confronted him on the fifth floor and ordered him to drop the weapon Joel decided to try something different he lunged at the officer leading Amy to shoot him multiple times in the the chest despite the officer's efforts to save his life using CPR Joel did not survive he had murdered six people during his attack five women and one man five victims died at the scene and one died later at a hospital at least 12 people were injured including an infant the police indicated that no one else was involved in the attack and they have no evidence that Joel was ideologically driven it's clear from the police statements that they will be looking closely at Joel's mental health as a potential explanation for his actions now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one throughout his life Joel couchi lived in a few different areas and interacted with a variety of people here are some of the ways he has been described a troubled young man who kept to himself and behaved oddly a weird looking man who was confused and maintain mained a vague expression his presence caused others to feel nervous he looked like he wasn't all there angel would frequently wander around and talk to himself people said it was very obvious he was suffering from mental health symptoms as I mentioned Joel had been diagnosed with schizophrenia he was treated by public Mental Health Services from 2000 until 2012 from that point on he saw a private mental health clinician Joel was well known to law enforcement but he had no criminal history and had never been arrested the attention he attracted from the police was due to mental health concerns item number two Joel appeared to have an intense fascination with knives in 2021 when he was in Queensland he took ordinary kitchen knives to be sharpened telling the knife sharpener that they were hunting knives the knife sharpener implied that the knives were cheap and not really worth sharpening he was surprised that anyone would want to have them sharpen Joe was not pleased about the knife sharpening job he left a onear review online suggesting that the knives were now useless in 2023 he called the police on his father for hiding knives from him this makes it seem as though Joel may have been doing something disturbing with those knives in addition to knives Joel had an interest in firearms in 2020 he made social media posts looking to meet up with people who would shoot guns item number three in the time leading up to his death Joel demonstrated an intense interest in sexual activity he posted profiles on three websites which promoted escort services Joel stated that he was looking for sex work and that both male and female customers would be accepted in order to entice potential customers Joel described himself as good-looking and athletic a wide range of closed door services were available many of which were graphic in nature it's not clear if Joel had functioned as a sex worker before but he did appear to be familiar with several clothing challenged clubs and brothel even left them positive reviews online in addition to wanting to connect to people to have sex Joel actively attempted to explore other interests for example he was looking for someone to teach him how to surf and he wanted to be part of learning exchanges to study German Swedish and Russian item number four did Joel have the same profile as a mass shooting perpetrator he had an interest in Firearms maybe he only used a knife because he could not access a gun there were a lot of factors that Joel had in common with a typical mass shooting perpetrator he was male just like 97% of the perpetrators he had a mental health history 59% of perpetrators share this characteristic substance use problems plagued Joel 43% of perpetrators have the same struggle and Joel had a psychotic disorder just like 27% of mass shooting perpetrators despite the similarities Joel was not like these perpetrators in two key areas he did not have a criminal record like 65% of the perpetrators and he did not have a History of Violence like 63% of the perpet trators item number five was the attack perpetrated by Joel attributable to schizophrenia the theory that schizophrenia played a part in Joel's decision to kill is reinforced by the absence of any identifiable ideological motive there's no way to know for certain but let's take a look at the evidence both for and against the idea that schizophrenia was involved starting with the factors supporting this theory in the time leading up to the murders Joel appeared to have a lot of big plans for example he wanted to learn new languages this was in the absence of any clear plan to make a living it was like he was disconnected from reality Joel had a history of talking to himself in public which is consistent with psychosis he was desperately trying to initiate sexual contact with people maybe these schizophrenia symptoms were keeping him isolated right before Joel conducted the attack he ordered food in a restaurant a worker there said that Joel appeared to be confused when he exited the restaurant he fell into a storefront a man who assisted Joel described him as appearing to be drug affected when drugs are combined with schizophrenia the risk of violence increases tremendously for example another killer from Queensland who had schizophrenia Reena th killed eight children after heavy cannabis use moving to the factors that contradict the theory that the attack was attributable to schizophrenia schiz FIA is associated with being disorganized yet Joel was spotted at the shopping center the day before the attack as if he planned it furthermore he had to take several deliberate steps to stab so many people before being killed by a police officer persecutory and paranoid delusions are associated with violence but there has been no mention of Joel's suffering from these types of delusions for example no one has talked about Joel believing that he was being tracked by the CIA or perhaps more appropriately for his location the Australian secret intelligence service Joel appeared to select his victims at random and he selected a shopping center to maximize casualties these are not the actions of someone who was afraid rather of a predator there is the sense that Joel went from being a little bizarre and under the influence of substances to being a violent killer he had schizophrenia for years why would he become violent now in the absence of any obvious trigger when weighing all the evidence was schizophrenia to blame for Joel's behavior in my opinion a clear connection between his schizophrenia symptoms and his violent Behavior has not been clearly established maybe schizophrenia caused it especially since Joel was not being actively treated for the disorder when he became violent but perhaps there were other causes for example depression Mania or substance use perhaps it had nothing to do with any of those rather it was just based on his personality Joel could have been Psychopathic narcissistic or sadistic Society may never know the answer because for the most part Joel spent the months leading up to the attack in isolation now moving to my final thoughts for some people sharing the same fate as the victims in this case is a tremendous fear the victims were peacefully shopping in a mall and all of a sudden an erratic individual with a knife was stabbing them he did not know them there was no animosity between them there was no connection whatsoever there was nothing they could have done to prevent the attack adding to this sphar is how Joel did not appear to have any clear motive and was using a weapon anyone can access regardless of their history how can attacks like this be prevented if there is no warning and if anyone can be dangerous at any time those are my thoughts in the case of Joel couchi please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section setion they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 135,600

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Id: wZQAEsPduMM

Length: 12min 8sec (728 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2024