Twelve months after terror unfolded at Sydney’s Bondi Junction shopping centre, questions remain about one man’s murderous rampage on innocent shoppers and what could have been done to prevent it.
Joel Cauchi, 40, fatally stabbed six people – new mother and osteopath Ashlee Good, 38; bride-to-be Dawn Singleton, 25; artist Pikria Darchia, 55; architect Jade Young, 47; economics student Yixuan Cheng, 27; and Westfield security guard Faraz Tahir, 30. The grief caused by Cauchi’s murderous attack on April 13, 2024, remains deep and raw.
Surviving security guard Muhammad Taha sheds a tear as he lays a bouquet at the memorial on the anniversary of the attack.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Amid the death and horror that Saturday emerged stories of heroism and goodwill. There was the unforgettable footage of NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott, who, as the first officer on the scene, ran towards danger to confront the knife-wielding attacker alone before shooting him dead when he lunged at her.
Other police and paramedics fearlessly attempted to secure the area and save lives. Ordinary people showed tremendous bravery, including “bollard man” Damien Guerot, a French citizen who was granted permanent residency after confronting Cauchi on the escalators, armed with a bollard.
Speaking to mark the anniversary of the attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Bondi Junction was a moment where “cruelty was met with courage”.
“Amid the terror, people were tested in ways they had never imagined, yet their first instinct was to help each other,” he said.
As the Herald’s Jordan Baker and Perry Duffin report, Cauchi’s rampage that afternoon unfolded so quickly that most of his victims didn’t see him coming. The whole ordeal – from when he first pulled the knife to when he was shot dead by a police inspector – spanned less than six minutes.
Later this month, the horror of those six minutes will be examined in great detail as part of a five-week coronial inquest.
Singleton’s father, advertising executive John Singleton, has said the hearings before State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan, are ghoulish, a “waste of time”, and wants the inquest shelved.
But others, including other members of Singleton’s family, along with the Good, Young and Tahir families, support the mandatory inquest. “We hope the inquest leads to greater attention on public safety and preventative measures,” Sheraz and Muzafar Tahir, the younger and elder brothers of Tahir, told the Herald.
The five-week mandatory inquest will reopen fresh wounds from a dark afternoon in Sydney’s recent history. Aware of this, O’Sullivan has already taken steps, including ruling that CCTV of Cauchi’s attack will not be played as part of the public hearings.
The inquest will be confronting, especially for those directly impacted, but is necessary not only to examine what went on at Bondi Junction but any failings in mental health systems that could have intervened to stop Cauchi, a 40-year-old man with escalating mental health challenges and a fascination with knives.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has already vowed a swift response to the coroner’s findings, giving hope that in 12 months’ time we may not only have answers but solutions.
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