Police operation after multiple car crash, stabbing leaves man dead on road
A man is dead and another stabbed in broad daylight following a multi-suburb crime rampage across Sydney that included a carjacking, numerous crashes and a police car being rammed. SEE THE SHOCKING VIDEO.
A man has been left dead in the street after a brutal rampage that included a carjacking, numerous crashes, a police car being rammed and a stabbing, before he turned the knife on himself.
The crime spree across southern and southwest Sydney began at 3pm after police tried to pull over a 4WD that had no number plates, and ended only when the 24-year-old driver stabbed himself to death in Arncliffe half an hour later.
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It all started when the Greenacre man — who had mental health problems — rammed the police car that was trying to stop him on the Hume Hwy in Bass Hill and he then drove to Chullora, where he stole a Woolworths truck.
He crashed into several cars while driving the truck, before a driver tried to use his ute to block the Woolworths truck on West Botany St in Rockdale.
The man got out and tried to steal several cars before a brave 20-year-old ran out of the nearby Fitness First gym to try to stop him.
Dramatic vision shows the moment the offender, wearing a white shirt, stabs the “good samaritan” once in the torso in front of horrified onlookers.
“There was a bloke in a Woolworths van and then he sideswiped … cars … he got out of the car and had a knife … he was trying to hijack other cars, he’s gone across the road and a kid from the gym — he’s stabbed the kid,” one Rockdale resident, Con, said.
One man said his female friend was first to help the stabbed man who had ran from the gym to help.
“She was holding him while he was bleeding,” he said.
“She works around the corner, she helped the guy, ambos came and saved him.”
As people rushed to help the injured man, the offender carjacked a taxi and did a U-turn before driving away. A police helicopter tracked the stolen vehicle before it was stopped in Arncliffe.
Superintendent Michael Fitzgerald said that police were trying to use a taser when the man suddenly stabbed himself in the chest. Officers performed first aid but he died at the scene.
“(It’s been indicated) to us that the offender wasn’t trying to intentionally harm people on the way, obviously he did,” Supt Fitzgerald said.
“He is known to police, he has a mental health background, he has not got an extensive criminal history, but he is known to police.
“It was a man who was attempting to do everything he (could) to avoid arrest.
“His actions … when he stabbed the innocent person is the action of a person who we believe had mental health problems.”
The injured man, who police labelled a “good Samaritan”, was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition to undergo surgery in St George Hospital. He is now in a stable condition.
NSW Ambulance Inspector Jordan Emery said bystanders helped save the man’s life.
“We arrived on scene to find a truck had collided with two vehicles and there was a male patient who had sustained an abdominal stab wound,” he said.
“The injured male had sustained a significant stab wound to his abdomen and was lying on the roadside with a number of members of the public and police providing first aid to him.”
He is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Mr Emery thanked members of the public and police for their quick-thinking.
“It was quite a dynamic scene, there was a number of bystanders crowding around the patient, police did a tremendous job providing first aid to this male and it makes all the difference in these time critical emergencies,” he said.
“Members of the public did provide direct pressure to the wound which is one of the hallmark treatments for life-threatening haemorrhage. They provided that care to him prior to police arrival.”
A female driver who was in one of the cars hit by the Woolworths truck was also injured.
She suffered minor injuries and was transported to St George Hospital.
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