‘I was probably going to die’: Hero police officer in tears over Bondi attack

NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott, who shot dead Bondi Junction Westfield attacker Joel Cauchi, accepted she was “probably going to die” as she faced down the killer.

The heroic police officer, another senior police commander, and two French nationals who confronted Cauchi with bollards laid bare the lasting scars in emotional evidence to a coronial inquest one year after the massacre.

NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott (centre), arriving on Tuesday at the NSW Coroner’s Court in Lidcombe.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Cauchi, 40, was armed with a Ka-Bar USMC military knife when he stabbed 16 people, killing six, in the crowded shopping centre on April 13, 2024.

The attack lasted just over three minutes before Scott, who was near the centre for other duties, heard an emergency call over the police radio, the inquest heard on Tuesday.

The inquest has also heard of Joel Cauchi’s troubled mental health history. Credit: Facebook

“We’re getting multiple calls, multiple stabbings, multiple locations, at Bondi Junction Westfield,” the voice on the scanner broadcast just after 3.30pm.

“I knew right then that it was very real,” Scott said.

People were pouring out of the centre and flagged down Scott’s car. Two French nationals and a security guard were among the group begging the lone officer for help.

They were Damien Guerot and Silas Despreaux, who had courageously stepped between Cauchi and a woman.

The Frenchmen were armed with heavy, metre-long bollards and threw them at Cauchi, trying to halt his advance up an escalator.

“I knew I needed to stop him, even if it meant hurting him,” Despreaux later told police.

French nationals Damien Guerot (left) and Silas Despreaux (right) address the media at the NSW Coroner’s Court.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Scott said she knew police facing such attackers have a 60 to 70 per cent chance of survival when accompanied by a partner, and wearing a protective vest. She had neither.

“I felt nauseous, I resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to die,” Scott said.

The group raced to the fifth floor of the centre, where Scott instructed everyone to stay behind her, hand on her holstered pistol.

Cauchi had stopped on the air bridge on level five and was rocking on his feet.

“I saw a lady and a pram, two ladies and a pram, one had run away, but another had hidden behind a large pot plant about 15 metres on the other side of Joel,” Scott told the inquest.

Inspector Amy Scott was alone when she confronted the knife-wielding Joel Cauchi.

“I mouthed at her to ‘run’.”

Cauchi turned and looked towards the woman with the pram.

“I yelled out ‘mate’ to get his attention back to me,” the inspector said.

Cauchi sprinted towards the officer with the large knife out.

“He was going to kill me,” Scott said.

CCTV showed Scott drawing her weapon and stepping back. She fired her weapon once.

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

Scott receiving the NSW Police Commissioner’s Valour Award.Credit: Kate Geraghty

She fired twice more. The second shot hit Cauchi, the third hit the pot plant where the mother had been sheltering seconds earlier.

Scott has been universally hailed as a hero for her actions and was recognised with the Commissioner’s Valour Award.

On Tuesday, she used her first moments in the witness box to reach out to the families of the dead and the survivors of the attack.

Scott was resolute throughout her evidence except for one moment when her voice broke.

“We think that police don’t feel fear, don’t feel the burden and pressures of what everyday humans do,” Scott said.

“I can assure you that they do.

“And whilst I was the person that faced Joel, those young officers ran [into Bondi Westfield] with the exact same intentions.”

“That day, as tragic as it is, restored some faith in humanity and the goodness of the people.”

A second senior officer, Chief Inspector Chris Whalley, took command of the scene at Bondi that afternoon.

Damien Guerot on a Bondi Junction Westfield escalator facing off with the attacker.

He asked a group of young police officers why they were standing in a strange location, before realising they were near one of the bodies.

“Because I don’t want to leave them alone,” the officers replied.

“It’s an incident I won’t forget,” Whalley said, in tears.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Marks, said police officers who use lethal force experience “vicarious trauma”.

“It is almost the case that 9/10 cases involve mentally ill people,” Marks said on Monday.

The central theme of the inquest is shaping up to be failures of the mental health system to properly treat Cauchi, who was living with schizophrenia.

Cauchi had come off medication five years before the attack.

His Queensland psychiatrist told Cauchi to “self-determine” whether he should take medication again, and he decided not to.

But Cauchi’s mother was found notes from her son expressing belief he was “under Satanic control”.

In late 2023, Queensland police were called to the family home in Toowoomba after Cauchi’s father confiscated his son’s knives.

“He really needs to see a doctor, but he does not know he is sick,” his mother told police.

Scott told the inquest it would have been a useful opportunity for a mental health service to have accompanied police and intervened in Cauchi’s deterioration.

“NSW Police are regularly called and required to respond to people in mental health crisis,” Scott said.

“My staff, every day, are dealing with at least one job of that nature.”

Whalley, the mental health co-ordinator for Sydney’s eastern suburbs, said his officers record up to 170 mental health crisis responses each month. Mental health is second only to domestic violence in occupying police resources.

“The involvement of police generally is not helpful,” he said.

“I think there’s an opportunity to improve outcomes for people, and those outcomes might not involve police.”

If you or anyone you know needs help, call SANE on 1800 187 263 (and see sane.org), Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see lifeline.org.au) or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 (and see beyondblue.org.au).

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