A Sydney university student claims he has received ‘thousands’ of messages after he was wrongly identified as the knifeman behind a horrific attack that left six innocent customers dead.
Ben Cohen, a 20-year-old first-year computer science student at the University of Technology, was charged with stabbing shoppers at Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday afternoon.
New South Wales Police Minister Yasmin Catley has since identified 40-year-old Queensland man Joel Cauchi as the man who attacked shoppers with a knife.
The name “Benjamin Cohen” began trending on X – formerly known as Twitter – just hours after the stabbing, with more than 50,000 posts mentioning his name.
Mr. Cohen labeled the accusations made by Internet sleuths as “very dangerous,” noting that they could “destroy people’s lives.”
Ben Cohen (pictured) was wrongly identified by internet sleuths as the knifeman behind the Bondi Junction Westfield attack
The knifeman (photo during the attack) has now been identified by police as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi
“People don’t really think about what they post and how it might affect someone,” he said News.com.au.
Cohen’s father Mark said the family, who live together in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, were “freaked out” by the shocking allegations.
“I think they just went with the first look that looked the same and matched their own motives or what they wanted the story to be,” Mark told the publication.
Mark added that the vicious rumors even reached Mr. Cohen’s extended family, with loved ones calling to find out if they were true.
“Everyone’s asking what’s going on, people are asking if it’s true. Of course that’s not true, he’s not even a politically motivated person. “He’s just a normal kid who has to deal with this now,” he said.
Hours before police held a press conference and revealed Cauchi as the knifeman, Mark had gone to X to clear his son’s name.
“Hey NSW Police, you need to release the name of the Bondi junction attacker before this nonsense claiming it was my son does any more damage,” he wrote.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mark Cohen for comment.
Among the dead was 38-year-old mother Ashlee Good, who, along with her nine-month-old daughter, was first targeted by Cauchi.
The baby remains hospitalized in a serious but stable condition following surgery.
Six innocent shoppers, including the mother of an injured nine-month-old baby, died in the horror knife attack on Saturday afternoon (photo, witnesses speaking to an officer at the scene)
Their heartbroken family shared a statement Sunday morning that read, “Today we are reeling from the devastating loss of Ashlee, a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, an extraordinary human being and so much more.
“We appreciate the wishes and thoughts of members of the Australian public who have expressed their love for Ashlee and our little girl.
“We are so grateful for the expert care and attention from the medical team at Sydney Children’s Hospital.
‘We would also like to thank the New South Wales Police for their kindness and dedication to this tragedy and the emergency services for getting our baby the care she needed as quickly as possible.
“To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee couldn’t, words cannot express our gratitude.”
