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Black Saturday - 6 killed in stabbing attack - the killer shot: Bondi Junction stabbing, shooting live updates: Multiple dead, injured in Sydney’s eastern suburbs; PM briefed as police probe terror links
I noticed smartly dressed security guard Faraz Tahir patrolling at Westfield when I was there before the slaughter began. The only man killed. A hero who gave his life trying to protect Eastern Suburbs shoppers. A refugee and Muslim hero of his faith. Rest In Peace.
A heroic man who held a bollard to stop knifeman Joel Cauchi from getting to a children’s play area has been named as French man Silas Despreaux.
Mr Despreaux has been dubbed “bollard man” after videos emerged of him grabbing a bollard inside the Bondi Junction shopping centre and confronting killer Joel Cauchi as he tried to come up an escalator.
Queensland man Joel Cauchi, 40, has been named as the man who went on a stabbing spree at Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday, killing six people and injuring a dozen more before police shot him dead.
Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said on Sunday morning police had spoken to relatives of Cauchi, who they believed was from the Brisbane area and was known to Queensland police.
Bondi Junction killer Joel Cauchi. FACEBOOK
Cooke said the attack was not terror-related.
“We are continuing to work through the profiling of the offender, but … it would appear that this is related to the mental health of the individual,” Cooke said.
He said Cauchi had moved to NSW last month and had rented an inner-city storage facility.
Cooke did not know how he came to possess the knife used in the attack.
Police believe he lived with schizophrenia. They are investigating a potential history of targeting women.
The dead include five women and one man.
Many of the injured, including a baby, were all in a serious but stable condition.
Three more people presented to hospital overnight, including a couple with minor injuries.
Shoppers leave the mall on Saturday. DION GEORGOPOULOS
“This was a terrible scene,” Cooke said. “We are working through the process now of speaking with the families and supporting the families of those victims; two of whom would appear have no family in Australia. So we are working through and with agencies overseas to attempt to reach out to the families.”
Of the three patients in St Vincent’s Hospital, one woman in her 40s is in a stable condition. A man and a woman, both in their 20s, are in a critical condition. Another patient has been discharged.
Photos posted to Cauchi’s social media accounts show him posing in a wetsuit in front of a surfboard. Six days ago, he posted a message on a Facebook group for people interested in surfing and adventures in Sydney: “Hi I am surfing Bondi this afternoon if anyone wants to meet there for a surf!“A mother, Ash Good, and her nine-month-old baby were among those attacked by Cauchi, who wandered the centre with a knife in his hand and struck at shoppers.
Bondi Junction Westfield and streets surrounding were in lockdown and closed as police and ambulance respond to multiple stabbing casualties. OSCAR COLMAN
According to witnesses, Good, 38, was desperate to save her baby after they were both stabbed, handing her daughter to two male shoppers as she was critically injured.
She died later in hospital. Witnesses said the attacker appeared to choose his victims at random.
The horror unfolded on the first day of the school holidays. Police say CCTV footage shows the attacker first walked into Bondi Junction Westfield at 3.10pm, and left shortly after. He then returned at about 3.20pm. Word began to spread among shoppers that a man was stabbing people with a weapon that onlookers described as a 30-centimetre-long hunting knife.
Panic spread; people locked themselves in store rooms, hid in change rooms – some for hours – or fled to exits. Shop windows clapped down, emergency warnings blared across the centre and people were screaming.
An image circulated on social media showed the police inspector attending to the attacker after shooting him. SUPPLIED
On Sunday, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park praised the courage of emergency services workers.
Park said he had travelled to a debriefing of 30 to 40 paramedics at Randwick ambulance station after the incident, and specialist trauma psychologists were on hand.
“I met with the first paramedics and the crew who were on scene, and what they saw and what they went through is horrendous,” Park said.
“No doubt the country wakes up this morning with more questions than answers, but one thing we do know is that the bravery, skill and the sheer courage of those frontline police and paramedics who are first on scene is unbelievable.
Acting NSW Premier Penny Sharpe said medical staff had worked around the clock to try to save the lives of the injured.
“We hold in our hearts, the families and the friends and those who have lost loved ones with those who are waiting to hear for those that have been injured, and we stand by all the medical staff who are fighting to save their lives,” she said.
Premier Chris Minns was due to return from a family holiday in Tokyo on Sunday.
