Teenager, 15, refused bail after chasing teenager with knife, threatening to kill him at Eaton shopping centre

A 15-year-old boy held a 30cm butcher’s knife to a teenager’s throat and threatened to kill him in a horrifying incident at a South West shopping centre shown in court recently.

CCTV vision played in Bunbury Children’s Court on August 5 showed the juvenile, who cannot be named because of his age, chasing another youngster with the weapon at Eaton Fair Shopping Centre, before wrapping his arm around him and holding the knife his throat while saying: “I will kill you right here, right now.”

The court was told the 15-year-old had been walking with eight to 10 friends near Smalls Bar at Eaton Fair about 10pm on June 25 when he yelled out to the victim to come to him.

Police said the victim was walking with friends and told his attacker “we don’t want any trouble”, prompting the 15-year-old to run after the boy with a 30cm butcher’s knife for more than a minute, before catching up to him and grabbing him by the jumper outside Zambrero restaurant.

The boy wrapped his arm around the victim and held the knife to his throat and said “do you want to play around? I will kill you right here, right now”.

The victim said to the attacker “please leave me alone, I don’t want any trouble” before he threw him to the ground and kneeled on his chest.

Two of the victim’s friends then approached the pair to help, with the attacker then swinging a knife at one of the boys, barely missing his neck.

Magistrate Sandra De Maio refused bail for the 15-year-old boy and said it was a miracle no one had died during the ordeal.

“He missed by the grace of God, but he wasn’t necessarily aiming to miss,” Ms De Maio.

“You’re a risk to the community that I can’t afford to unleash because you are a dangerous risk.”

The teenager will next appear in Bunbury Children’s Court on September 16 for a trial allocation.