In a humble red brick house in Werribee in Melbourne’s south-west, a Somalian family began a new life in Australia in the 1990s.

Fast forward to November 2018, and the same house may hold clues about what led a 30-year old-man to go on a murderous rampage in Bourke Street in the city centre.

Joint counter-terrorism investigators raided the home on a quiet street on Saturday morning looking to piece together Hassan Khalif Shire Ali’s journey of radicalisation.

On Friday, police shot Shire Ali after he set a truck on fire, stabbed a man to death and injured two others. He died in hospital later that night.

Shire Ali was previously known to police and intelligence agencies.

He had a history of minor drug, theft and driving offences.

Australian Federal Police acting deputy commissioner Ian McCartney has revealed that Shire Ali had his passport cancelled in 2015 because he wanted to fight for Islamic State in Syria.

However, authorities were not actively monitoring him before the attack despite acknowledging he had been “inspired” by the extremist group.

“The assessment was that person was not a threat at that time,” McCartney said.

“Obviously, a focus of the investigation will be ... how and why and when and where he moved along that path of radicalisation.”

Shire Ali’s family regularly prayed at the Virgin Mary mosque, which is part of the Werribee Islamic Centre. It’s understood the highly respected imam at the centre preaches a moderate brand of the faith.

The Islamic centre spokesman Rifai Raheem said Shire Ali’s father – a retired taxi driver – was a “good person … very nice and helpful”.

“There’s no history of wrong doing,” he said.

Raheem said everyone who knew the family was in deep shock and felt hatred towards Shire Ali for bringing their faith into disrepute.

“They’re all very angry … because it brings a bad impact to the community,” he said.

Police have also interviewed the wife of Shire Ali.

They won’t know until toxicology reports come through in several days whether he was affected by drugs at the time of the attack.

The deceased victim has been identified as Sisto Malaspina, 74, the owner of popular Italian cafe Pellegrini’s.

Tasmanian retiree Rod Patterson, 58, and a second man, a 24-year-old security guard from Hampton Park, are recovering from surgery in the Royal Melbourne hospital.