Mother repeatedly stabbed, young son punched in ‘horrific’ random Melbourne CBD attack

A man has been charged after he allegedly punched a 10-year-old boy and repeatedly stabbed his mother with a pair of scissors outside of a Melbourne police station.

Police said the man was quickly arrested after a hero bystander who tackled the assailant mid-attack.

According to officers, the 46-year-old mother and her three children, aged 10, 11 and 16, were on the footpath on Spencer Street when the stranger approached the family about 1pm on Tuesday.

Victoria Police Superintendent Zorka Dunstan said the 27-year-old man “randomly” punched the child and kept walking.

Dunstan said he then turned around, “grabbed the mother in a headlock” and stabbed her repeatedly with a pair of scissors, mainly in her back.

Dunstan said a passerby intervened, jumped on the 27-year-old and wrestled him off the woman.

Two other people came to their aid and helped the passerby pin the man down.

“It’s heroic, without a doubt, without their intervention it could’ve been a lot worse, so we’re so grateful for their assistance and I’m sure the family are as well,” Dunstan said.

Dunstan said police came out of the station within a minute and arrested the suspect.

The 10-year-old boy and his mother were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“We also have two other kids who were witness to the attack as well,” Dunstan said.

“Fortunately, they weren’t injured but they have obviously been impacted seeing such an incident, especially occurring to their mother and brother as well.”

She said one of the children, an 11-year-old boy, was “absolutely impacted by what he saw”.

“I gave him a hug because I was impacted just watching how he reacted,” she said.

“We spent some time with them. He’s grateful for the fact that people attended quickly and I said to him how lucky that we had such good people intervene and help his mum, so he was really grateful for that.”

Dunstan said the attack was random and there was nothing to suggest the man was known to the family.

“Any offending of this nature is horrific anywhere, not just outside the police station, anywhere,” she said.

“It’s completely random and we’re horrified by it.

“I’m just glad that we had people assist immediately because no doubt that if they didn’t assist, it would have been a lot more serious.”

Late on Tuesday, Victoria Police said a 27-year-old Sunshine West man had been charged with affray, intentionally cause injury and unlawful assault (x2), conduct endanger life and conduct endanger serious injury.

He was remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

Dunstan said the man was known to police in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia, but he does not have “an extensive history”.

“We do believe he is suffering some sort of mental health issue,” she said.

One witness said he initially thought there was a fist fight.

“I thought they were fighting each other, but then I realised something major was happening,” he said.

Another witness told Melbourne radio station 3AW she saw the woman going into an ambulance “with blood all over her back”.

An Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said crews responded to the incident about 1.10pm on Tuesday.

“Advanced life support paramedics attended the scene,” the spokesperson said.

“Two people have been transported to hospital by road ambulance.”