‘Frightened’ paramedics commended for ‘phenomenal’ response during Westfield Bondi Junction rampage
The first paramedic to enter Bondi Westfield after a fatal stabbing attack broke down in tears while sharing tragic new details on the response at an inquest.
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The first paramedic who entered Westfield Bondi Junction after the fatal rampage, knowing a second offender may have been inside, broke down on the stand in an emotional morning of evidence at an inquest.
Six people were killed and 10 others were injured by killer Joel Cauchi in the attack at Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024.
Dawn Singleton, Yixuan Cheng, Faraz Ahmed Tahir, Ashlee Good, Jade Young and Pikria Darchia died in the incident.
Inspector Brett Simpson, who was the forward commander and first responding paramedic on the day of the fatal attack, broke down in tears while sitting in court on Friday morning,
“My deepest condolences to you and your families from me. I’d also like to note that a number of my staff and team that were on the day haven't been called to give evidence expressed that I pass on their condolences to you as well. I’m sorry for your losses,” he said through tears.
He said he was told there was a slim chance there was a second offender when he arrived on scene about 3.42pm, but decided to go in anyway because he needed to get to the critically ill patients inside.
“I did that because based on the probability of the police officer saying he was fairly confident there was only one offender at that point and that he had been shot, and on the condition of the patients inside,” he said.
“(On the) balances of safety and for the patients, I decided to go in.”
However, at 4.01pm he heard there may have been a second offender through a police broadcast.
“I started to panic because I thought that I put my staff in quite significant danger,” he said, tearing up.
“A lot of them are my friends, so that was a very difficult moment.”
Of course, there was only one offender, which was later confirmed.
Paramedics’ ‘phenomenal’ actions
He thanked paramedics for their “phenomenal” actions on the day in an emotional address.
“They were frightened, we were all frightened, but they did not hesitate, they did not question my orders … my directives, they knew that what they were going into was a very serious incident,” he said.
“Not one of them hesitated, not one of them flinched.”
He said those working in dispatch “didn’t skip a beat” while co-ordinating and responding.
He thanked his senior managers for their support over the last 12 months.
“My discomfort is quite minimal compared to people who lost family and loved ones on that day, but it has not been an easy 12 months,” he said.
The court was told some of the paramedics who attended on the day were so committed to their patients they had trouble moving on, which Inspector Simpson agreed with.
It is not suggested they did not adequately perform their duties.
Inspector Simpson agreed a 10-second triage, which allows for the quick triage of patients, could have been beneficial particularly with resource allocation on the day.
The court was told about the system using the term “category silver” rather than deceased for first responders on scene.
“I wouldn’t say that it was a problem, it was definitely a factor in that our crews are very well trained but in a situation like that when their bandwidth is completely and wholly exceeded by the environment they’re in, some of them potentially may not have felt comfortable in making that declaration (of deceased),” Inspector Simpson said.
“That’s a role that I ended up performing … it was apparent to me that based on their injuries and what I saw of them that was in fact the case and being able to take that burden off of those crews …(so they could) conserve some of their supplies and move on and treat other patients.”
Faraz’s family thanks paramedic
At about 4.28pm the area was officially declared a hot zone and all crews were directed out of the centre.
However, it has been made clear on several occasions that this did not have any affect on any patient outcomes, and all patients had been taken out of the centre by then.
“By that stage I was very confident given the discussions I’d had with police locally within the centre, and the fact that there seemed to be no more calls coming through, and no more reports or police physically approaching us saying ‘I’ve got this person’,” Inspector Simpson said.
“I was very confident … that we had collected everyone.”
A lawyer speaking on behalf of security guard Faraz Tahir’s family thanked Inspector Simpson for his courage.
“On behalf of the family of Faraz Tahir, thank you for treating him, thank you for treating every person you did on this day, thank you for your courage shown on this day, and every day,” he said.
“Thank you to every one of the ambulance officers who attended … Thank you to every ambulance officer that you have referred to.”
Alarms made communication ‘effectively impossible’
The volume of the alarms in the centre following the rampage have been described several times during the inquest as being very loud, with Inspector Simpson saying it made communications “effectively impossible”.
“I can’t really do it justice by very loud … it was both a significant physical and mental impedance to basically every activity that was undertaken inside the shopping centre,” he said.
“Even with my microphone or the speaker pushed against my ear at full volume, I couldn’t hear anything that was coming (through).
“I couldn’t hear or decipher any of the information that was coming through.”
This left him to communicate using hand signals with other paramedics and, failing that, having to physically walk up to them.
Specialist paramedics ‘chronically under resourced’
The court was earlier told of rostering problems and issues with accessibility to personal protective equipment for specialist operation team paramedics (SOTs).
Inspector Simpson agreed that SOTs were “chronically under resourced” and supported propositions they become a stand alone unit.
He also accepted there needed to be more multi-agency training exercises and noted there were barriers in being able to attend the voluntary exercises and separately more training for active armed offender (AAO) scenarios.
He returned to work the day after the Bondi attacks but found it difficult to follow up on the welfare of his colleagues due to the incident file being locked down, as per protocol.
It made it difficult to find who had been working the day before, leaving him to effectively “drive around to hospitals and try and find our staff”.
He agreed this was an important learning for the service should there be a similar incident.
More to come …
Originally published as ‘Frightened’ paramedics commended for ‘phenomenal’ response during Westfield Bondi Junction rampage
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