On June 4, 2019, Lebanon lost another native, due to a mass shooting abroad. Hassan Baydoun, a 33-year-old who has been residing in Darwin, Australia, for the past 10 years, has been a victim of madness.
Originally from the village of Shehabieh in Tyre, Lebanon, Baydoun earned his master’s degree in I.T. from Charles Darwin University and was working in a taxi company called Blue Taxi.
As per the Blue Taxi company, the unfortunate event occurred over the period of Baydoun’s lunch break. They stated that they will always cherish his admirable and loyal work for their company, and that it was a great loss to them.
The perpetrator was 45-year-old Ben Hoffman, an ex-convict released on parole and wearing a monitoring jacket. He went on a mass shooting, killing four people, among which Baydoun, and injuring one. The police declared five crime scenes in total, all in community-friendly locations, such as parks and supermarkets.
Hoffman was arrested around an hour after the shootings and is currently in the hospital. His actual motives for the dreadful attack are not clear, but according to officials, it is not terror-related. Australia’s PM Scott Morrison declared it, in a tweet, a “terrible act of violence.”
According to witnesses, Baydoun was the first victim in the shooting. The gunman was looking for someone named Alex, and Baydoun paid the price for that. Officials stated that an investigation is being made in order to conclude any possible connections to drug-related problems or outlaw motorcycle gangs.
Australian Prime Minister issued a statement saying that he stands with the victims of the shooting and that his thoughts are with them.
Australia doesn’t tolerate gun violence and has adopted one of the worlds strictest gun control laws since its tragic mass shooting in 1996 when a gunman killed 35 people at Port Arthur in a popular touristic spot of the island state of Tasmania.
However, criminal incidents like this one still occur in the country. As per CNN, just last month, a “drive-by shooting incident outside a Melbourne nightclub” killed a security guard and wounded five other people.
Questions arise on whether dangerous criminal detainees like Hauffman should be released on parole, and on how effective really are monitoring jackets in controlling crimes like this recent mass shooting.
