‘He was going to kill me’: Hero cop Amy Scott tells of moment she faced Bondi attacker Joel Cauchi
Inspector Amy Scott has spoken of the events that lead up to her shooting Bondi stabber Joel Cauchi last year: ‘I knew I couldn’t wait anymore for my colleagues to arrive and I just had to go in’.
Inspector Amy Scott believed she “was probably going to die” as she ran alone into Westfield Bondi Junction, having just been warned about a man with a knife “stabbing people … killing people” inside.
“I felt nauseous as I ran in because in my heart I resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to die,” she told a coronial inquest into the killings.
“I also knew I couldn’t wait anymore for my colleagues to arrive and I just had to go in. And I’m pretty sure I said on the radio ‘Just so you know, they’re active, I’m going in’ … I gave the location I went in at. My intention was to try and find the threat.”
One minute and 25 seconds later, having chased the attacker more than 160m across the fifth level of the Sydney shopping centre with two civilians in tow directing her, she had shot Joel Cauchi dead.
Moments earlier, a “floridly psychotic” Cauchi stopped cold before, she told the court, he “sprinted downhill at me” still holding the 30cm hunting knife with which he had killed six unsuspecting shoppers in the three minutes prior.
Continuing to yell at him to “stop” and “drop” the weapon, she fired the first shot.
“It’s a peculiar thing. It’s very fast, but in my mind it was extremely slow. I knew the first shot had hit him but that was because of a jolt in his body, but he continued to come towards me,” she said.
In that second, she had that same thought again: “He’s going to kill me.”
Backing away, she fired two further shots because she “had not been able to stop the threat with the first one”.
One bullet struck a pot plant about 15m behind Cauchi, where a woman and her small child had been hiding.
She had just “mouthed” to that woman to run away. And she did.
But “for a second, (Cauchi) turned,” Inspector Scott recalled, as if he might go that way. “I yelled out ‘mate’ to get his attention back to me,” she said.
In her unbelievably calm state, as she stood face-to-face with the man she believed would kill her, Inspector Scott directed people away from the area, telling them to run or hide.
Some shoppers still weren’t aware of what was going on.
Once Cauchi was incapacitated, she flicked his knife away, before putting him in the recovery position, and rendering first-aid.
Inspector Scott, holding back tears, told the court: “We as a society think that police don’t feel fear, don’t feel the burden and pressures of what everyday humans do. I can assure you that they do.
“I want to acknowledge the courage and bravery. Some of them have been unable to return and they have my whole-hearted support, love and care. I hope that the public understands that they were absolutely extraordinary, they saved lives on that day, they put themselves at risk.”
Inspector Scott received the call about “multiple stabbings” while on Bondi Road at 3.35pm.
“I knew right then it was very real,” she said.
When she arrived at the shopping centre a minute later, bystanders were waving her down, yelling: “He’s in there with a knife, he’s stabbing people, he’s killing people, you’ve got to help us get in there.”
Two of those people were French construction workers Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot, who followed her into the centre and directed her towards the killer.
As they moved up an escalator, one of them tapped her on the back and said: “You’re on your own, we are coming with you.”
She said: “That’s great, but can you stay behind me the whole time.”
Mr Despreaux and Mr Guerot sat side-by-side to give their evidence on Tuesday.
By the time they had met up with Inspector Scott, they had already attempted to stop Cauchi, following him through the centre and throwing metre-long bollards at him.
The court heard that when a female shopper had told them that “someone is hurting people”, Mr Despreaux “looked at Damien and said ‘OK, let’s go catch him’”.
Asked whether he had training in self-defence to “catch someone like that”, Mr Despreaux replied “No”.
They directed Inspector Scott towards Cauchi, and as she confronted the killer, Mr Despreaux stood behind her with a shopping trolley and yelled “Shoot him, shoot him.”
Outside court, Mr Guerot said Inspector Scott was a “hero”.
Asked why they ran after Inspector Scott, Mr Despreaux said “she was alone”.
He said he was “scared” at the time, but “didn’t think maybe about getting hurt”.
“We just think, ‘Stop him’,” Mr Guerot said.
Mr Guerot said they were, of course, scared, but they had to make a choice – “Do we escape or do we go?”
“Silas was (saying) like ‘we go’ ... and that time I would say my mind switch.”
Mr Despreaux said they often thought about the attack.
Chief Inspector Christopher Whalley, who co-ordinated the initial police response at Westfield Bondi Junction, broke down in tears as he recalled “what we ask (young police) to do as managers”.
He said at the end of the day, as he walked back through the centre, he asked some police officers “why they were standing where they were, which was quite close to one of the people who had been affected”.
“And their response was ‘because I don’t want to leave them alone’,” he said.
He apologised to the court for crying. “These are the things that stay with you,” he said.
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