Happenings

Dad stabs & beats his 11yr old son to death at sports practice before he is shot dead by police

An 11 year old boy (pictured above) was brutally attacked with a cricket bat and stabbed to death by his father during a cricket training session in the outer Melbourne township of Tyabb on Wednesday.

Daily Mail reports

Police shot Luke Batt's father Greg in an attempt to halt the frenzied attack, but the young boy was pronounced dead at the scene and his father died later in hospital. 
Horrified parents and children who were gathered at the ground for evening cricket training watched Greg attack his son with a knife and cricket bat on Wednesday evening at Tyabb Cricket Ground, in Victoria.

Today Luke's mother Rosie Batty (pictured above), who lives in Willingham, Cambridgeshire, said she believes the boy's father loved him, but had mental health issues.

Describing the moments leading up to her son's death she said 'Luke came to me and said, 'Could I have a few more minutes with my dad?' because he doesn't see him very often and I said, 'Sure, OK.'
'It was just a little cricket practice, there were people there, I believed he was safe. There’s no reason for me to be concerned, I thought it was in an open environment - that’s something I have to understand.' said Mrs Batty, 52

'I looked for help, and I ran towards help and screaming, 'Get an ambulance, get an ambulance, this is bad, this is really, really bad,' she said.
'From what I could see, Luke had been injured. I thought it was an accident, I had no reason to think otherwise.' 
'What triggered this was a case of his dad having mental health issues,' she told the Herald Sun.

'He was in a homelessness situation for many years, his life was failing, everything was becoming worse in his life and Luke was the only bright light in his life. No one loved Luke more than his father. No one loved Luke more than me — we both loved him.'

Recounting the horrific incident, she added: 'It was just a normal cricket practice and most of the kids and their parents had gone.

Ms Batty, who is originally from Lincoln in England said that police told her it was a calculated act that would have occurred at some point. 

The horrific attack unfolded at around 6.30pm in an outer suburb of Melbourne on the picturesque Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.

Tyabb is a quiet township with a country fire station, a railway station and three small primary schools including Flinders Christian Community College, where the boy was a sixth grade pupil.

Witnesses told the Herald Sun the father turned on them with the knife, forcing one of the officers to shoot him in the chest.

Local police from Mornington station arrived on the scene at 6.40pm, when four officers confronted the man and tried unsuccessfully to subdue him with capsicum spray.
As the news was broadcast, horrified Australians have begun posting tributes to the boy on social media.

Paramedics tried to save the boy, but he died at the scene from severe head injuries.
An emergency services helicopter took the father to the Alfred hospital, where the man died at around 1.30am on Thursday.

Victoria Police commander Doug Fryer confirmed the 'male that the police shot was the ­father of the deceased boy'.