UPDATE: Police have released CCTV of four men of African appearance they believe may be able to assist them with enquiries.
UPDATE 2: Video and images of the suspects removed after a 16-year-old male was charged with murder.
A major manhunt is underway for an African man who stabbed an elderly woman to death during a robbery at a Queensland shopping centre.
Vyleen White, 70, was stabbed in the chest at Town Square Redbank Plains Shopping Centre in Ipswich at 6.10pm on Saturday evening, in front of her six-year-old granddaughter.
She was treated at the scene but was unable to be saved, while the young girl was assessed but not physically injured.
The suspect, described by police as a male of African appearance, left his victim in a pool of blood and fled immediately after the attack, and police have asked members of the public who saw a blue 2009 Hyundai Getz in the area afterward to come forward.
Police have seized the hatchback, with Queensland registration 432 TYO, and will allege it was driven from the carpark after the attack.
They have since said they are seeking four persons of interest, all males of African appearance, who left that vehicle and walked away.
Detective Acting Superintendent Heath McQueen said on Sunday evening: “I describe those four persons of interest as African males in appearance. As you can appreciate, this is a significant investigation, we are 24 hours in.
“I can say, there’s believed to be one person involved in the attack on this elderly lady, operating alone.
“However I did say during the course of this investigation that may change and as it unfolds we may identify there a further offenders that are involved who are peripherally linked to this offender who has committed the homicide.”
Supt. McQueen said the stabbing appeared to have occurred during a robbery and said it was “very harrowing” for the girl to see the violence unfold.
“This is an abhorrent, cowardly, violent attack on a 70-year-old grandmother in front of her six-year-old granddaughter,” he said.
“This is a very confronting scene we have been faced with this evening.”
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully told the Courier Mail the crime was the worst in the city in the past 50 years.
“It is an appalling crime and the community is hurting enormously,” he said.
“A murder in broad daylight in a local shopping centre just to steal a car beggars belief.”
Police said seasoned officers were “taken aback by the level of violence”, and made a public appeal for help identifying the suspect.
