Officials have described the fatal shooting of a teenager last Friday in Parramatta as an act of terrorism. In line with information linked to terrorism, counterterrorism police officers apprehended four people already connected to the case on Wednesday. Several raids were conducted across Sydney’s western suburbs under the joint cooperation of counterterrorism and state crime homicide squads.

The raids occurred following the shooting and killing of Curtis Cheng by a 15-year-old last Friday. The attack happened at the Police Headquarters in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta after the victim left work. Officers who responded to the attack eventually shot and killed the 15-year-old, who has been identified as Farhad Jabar Khalil Mohammad, after he fired continually.

“We don’t know the motivation of the 15-year old,” said Catherine Burn, New South Wales deputy police commissioner. “What we are investigating is a terrorism offense,” she said, adding that investigators believe that the boy had been politically or ideologically influenced to carry out the attack.

There are no further details yet about how the raids and arrests made this Wednesday are connected to the boy. Four males with ages ranging from 16 to 22 were arrested. A fifth person of interest was also arrested on Wednesday on unrelated fraud charges, but police released him after.

According to the New York Times, authorities also visited a mosque in Parramatta where Mohammad supposedly worshipped. They questioned and arrested another youth who defended the attack through his social media posts.

BBC's Jon Donnison in Sydney claimed that Friday's incident has sent shock waves across Australia, and brought about concerns about the radicalisation of young people. In another light, BBC’s report highlighted how Australia’s campaign in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State (IS) may be related to what is happening to people in the country. In line with the campaign, the Australian government has implemented new national security laws which has experts worried about the impact of returnees, including ISIS supporters, on the country's security.

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