Brave cop’s ‘impressive’ act in Bondi massacre

A special ops officer has revealed an “impressive” detail many would have missed about hero cop Amy Scott’s actions during the Bondi Westfield massacre.

EXCLUSIVE

When Amy Scott came face to face with knife-wielding Joel Cauchi, it was the first time she’d ever had to pull the trigger on a “live threat” let alone a mass murderer.

Like all general duties officers, the inspector had completed her annual day-long firearm training at shooting ranges every 12 months and in her 19 years in the force has faced her share of violent, tense, situations.

But nothing compared to the stand-off with a man she knew had already killed innocent civilians. And she had every reason to believe he would strike again.

“What she did was pretty impressive,” said a special operations officer superiorly trained and ever ready for such a mass emergency with a “live threat” and mass casualties.

“We train for this kind of thing every shift, but general duty cops don’t,” said the officer whose name can’t be revealed.

“They have their yearly training and a one-off four-day course but I think it’s pretty safe to say we were lucky that day that it was her.

Inspector Amy Scott says she did what any other cop would have done. Colleagues though say we should all be glad she was the one who got there first.

“She’s someone who clearly had the nous, the calm under pressure, the control and the guts to tackle him head-on and make sure civilians were out of harm’s way. Other general duties officers might wait for back-up or fight feelings of wanting to run the other way.

“We can do the training, but you never know how you are going to react until you are put in that situation. Yep she did good.”

Another special ops officer said Inspector Scott’s ability to “hit the target’s centre of body mass” was proof of her proficiency and character under the most immense pressure.

“She shot three times and hit him twice, right where he needed to be shot. It’s pretty impressive.”

Inspector Scott insists she’s no more of a hero than any of the other officers, paramedics, security staff, hospital emergency crews and regular shoppers faced with such unimaginable terror in Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday April 13, 2024.

She says any of the police officers would have, and did, rush into the building just like she had - she just got there first.

Police Inspector Amy Scott in CTV as she hunted for Joel Cauchi. Pictured with Damien Guerot who helped fight off Cauchi.

The moment that made all the difference. Inspector Scott comes face-to-face with mass killer Joel Cauchi.

“I actually felt nauseous as I ran in because in my head, I’d resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to die,” Inspector Scott told the inquest into the massacre.

“So when you do your active armed offender training, originally they would talk about your percentages and chance of survival, and you’re looking at a 60 to 70 per cent chance of non-survival, and that’s if you’re partnered up and vested up, and I was neither of those.”

Inspector Scott was referring to the training introduced in the wake of the Lindt siege on December 14, 2014, when gunman Man Haron Monis held 18 people hostage until police stormed the building 17 hours later.

Ironically Inspector Scott was one of the dozens of first responders who rushed to Martin Place all those years ago when the emergency call came across the police radio.

A coroner ruled it was a “terrorist incident” for which Monis was solely responsible but found authorities had made major errors, including by delaying entry, during which time a hostage was killed.

In response the new police training focused on ending “active shooter” situations more quickly, in a divergence from their policies around other hostage scenarios.

Inspector Scott told the Bondi Junction inquest she completed the four-day intensive course in 2016.

Inspector Amy Scott makes sure 40-year-old Joel Cauchi is no longer a threat to anyone.

“It was very intense. It was over a four day period. I remember it was out at Castle Hill, and the big change and shift in that it was a set of circumstances around shifting away from that contain, negotiate,” she said.

“So, the rapidity of what an offender might be doing … if they’re actively using a weapon of some form to take lives quickly, contain, negotiate, the traditional method is not suitable in responding to that.

“It was about training us on methods to use in that active armed offender situation and how to respond. It’s, ‘Don’t wait. Go. Stop the killing. Stop the dying’.”

Those words, “Don’t wait, stop the dying” were ringing in the ears of Inspector Scott - a former Cessnock High school captain, soccer lover turned no-nonsense cop with a wife and two children waiting for her at home - as she stood in front of her own “live treat” that day.

He was a man who had already stabbed and killed six people and injured a further 12, including a nine-month-old girl.

“It might seem like an obvious question, but what was going through your mind when you fired the first shot?” Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer SC asked Inspector Scott at the inquest.

“That he was going to kill me,” she said matter-of-factly.

A year on and the pain remains. Survivors, relatives of victims and members of the public lay flowers at a memorial in Oxford Street Mall in Bondi Junction the tragic day that rocked the city. Picture: Julian Andrews

“After you fired the first shot, are you conscious of what happened next?” she was asked.

“It’s a peculiar thing. It’s very fast, but in my mind it was extremely slow. I knew my first shot had hit him, but - that was because of the jolt of his body, but he continued to come towards me.

“And I also simultaneously was saying, ‘Stop, drop it’, and fired two further shots because I had not been able to stop the threat with the first one.

“He just turned and started running at me … I know that one hit him, because it sort of made his chest - it sort of slowed him a bit, but I continued to back up because he was advancing really quickly.

“I shot two more times because I didn’t stop him straight away and I was trying to stop him, and then he fell to the ground. I actually fell to the ground as well, because I was trying to back up so quickly.

“He actually fell at that point, at the point that I had first told him to stop and drop it. So he actually advanced that far on me at that time”.

Inspector Scott said if she hadn’t backed up Cauchi would have landed on top of her.

“The way he’d fallen, the knife was actually underneath him, so I couldn’t see it, and I knew I needed to secure it.

NSW Police Commissioner, Inspector Amy Scott and her wife pay tribute to the ones that didn't make it. Picture: Julian Andrews

“I wasn’t sure if I had completely incapacitated him enough, but I knew I just had to bite the bullet and essentially make sure that that weapon was secure.”

Inspector Scott’s third bullet made contact with a large pot plant behind which a woman with a pram had been hiding.

Before shooting Cauchi, Inspector Scott had signalled with her hand and “mouthed to her to run”.

Dr Dwyer observed: “I know you’ve been commended previously for this, and you don’t have to commend yourself, but you effectively directed away the civilian that was standing there with the pram, and if you hadn’t done that, she may well have been injured, or a child, by the ricochet?”

In keeping with her modest assessment of her own heroics that day, Inspector Scott answered: “Maybe”.

What she was more focused on getting across was her appreciation and admiration for everyone else.

Inspector Amy Scott supported by her wife and Commissioner Karen Webb at the anniversary of the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbings. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“I wanted to mention my colleagues and my team on the day,” she told the courtroom packed with journalists. I said earlier we ask a lot of young police, and I think we as a society think that police don’t feel fear, don’t feel the burden and pressures of what everyday humans do, and I can assure you that they do.

“I can assure you on that day that they were fearful running in, and while I was the person that faced Joel, those young officers ran in with the exact same intentions.”

Inspector Scott, who returned to work in a matter of weeks, said she wanted to acknowledge the courage and bravery of her colleagues, some who haven’t been able to return to work.

“They have my wholehearted support, love and care, and … I hope that the public does understand that they were absolutely extraordinary.”

“They saved lives on that day. We did unfortunately lose the lives of six beautiful people but they saved lives and they put themselves at risk.

“And contrary to how well people think we are trained, we still feel fear, but they still went in there, so I want to acknowledge them in that space.”