Key Points
- A 70-year-old woman was stabbed in the chest at a Queensland shopping centre on Sunday.
- She died at the scene a short time later after attempts to revive her failed.
- Detectives have released CCTV footage depicting four youths in an allegedly stolen Hyundai Getz.
A 15-year-old boy has been charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle which police have linked to the stabbing of a 70-year-old woman outside a Queensland shopping centre on Sunday.
Another four boys, three 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old, were on Monday taken into custody in Ipswich west of Brisbane and are assisting police.
The 15-year-old who was charged had a closed hearing in court on Monday after the magistrate refused permission for media to publish the details.
"That does not mean there will not be further charges," Detective Acting Superintendent Heath McQueen told reporters on Monday.
The grandmother, named in media reports as Vyleen White, had been shopping with her six-year-old granddaughter at Redbank Plains west of Brisbane when she was stabbed in the chest in the centre's car park on Saturday.
She died at the scene a short time later.
The girl was unharmed.
Detectives have released CCTV footage depicting four youths in an allegedly stolen Hyundai Getz.
Floral tributes for the 70-year-old have been left at the entrance of the Redbank Plains shopping centre as family and friends mourn the loss.
A GoFundMe page organised by family friends has already raised more than $7600.
"They have lost a mother, grandmother, a wife and loved family member of their family," the fundraiser page said.
Some Redbank Plains residents are calling for more police presence at the shopping centre following the attack. Source: AAP / Jono Searle
"She was such a selfless woman - with so much care for her family and absolutely anyone she came into contact with," the page said.
"She would hold prayers for anyone who needed them.
"This is what they want her to be remembered by and not defined by the act of someone else."
Ipswich Mayor Theresa Harding said on Monday the attack was not the type of crime that would normally happen in the area.
"It's really shocking for us as a community," she told Seven's Sunrise program.
"It is a punch in the guts, it's brought us to tears."
Police are also reviewing CCTV footage of the incident.
Detective acting Superintendent Heath McQueen said the video was difficult to watch.
"It's extremely confronting for first responders, bystanders who intervened shortly after to provide medical assistance," he said.
Some Redbank Plains residents are calling for more police presence at the shopping centre following the attack.
"The community want a permanent police beat at the Redbank Plains town square," Harding said.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles has described the attack as "an abhorrent crime, a terribly violent crime, a crime committed ... in front of a very young relative of the victim".
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