Sydney rallies with sorrowful admiration for Ashlee Good and Amy Scott

Ashlee Good fought to the end to save her child, while Inspector Amy Scott confronted a knife-wielding man to save many.

‘Impressive’: first-time mum Ashlee Good and Inspector Amy Scott.

Strapped into her car seat, a nine-month-old baby looks up at her mother.

She’s all pillowy cheeks and eyelashes, concentrating hard on a snack she’s clutching in one hand.

A soundtrack plays: My Girl, the 1963 hit by the Temptations — a barbershop harmony that’s sweet and sad all at once, finger-clicks and a swinging bass line.

Holding the phone camera is Dr Ashlee Good, 38, a first-time mum.

“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day,” goes the song.

“What can make me feel this way? My girl.”

And then Mum and her girl headed where mums and their girls go on a long, slow Saturday afternoon: to the mall, for a stroll in the pram and some shopping.

Ashlee Good’s a seriously impressive woman; trained as an osteopath, now working as an account executive.

It’s early afternoon on a stunning mid-autumn Saturday; cloudless blue skies and the slightest chill on the very edge of a gentle southeasterly.

In charge: Inspector Amy Scott.

Off duty: Amy Scott.

Just a few kilometres away from Ashlee and her baby, another seriously impressive woman is working.

NSW police inspector Amy Scott is on duty, overseeing operations for Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command.

She’s alone in her police vehicle, driving the hills that slope up to Westfield Bondi Junction, a huge mall that sits atop a ridgeline; the highest point south of the harbour, visible from everywhere.

As a senior officer, Amy Scott is working alone. Listening for calls, talking to her team of officers out and about.

Inside the mall, Ashlee Good is living her last tranquil moments, unaware of what’s looming.

Pushing her baby in the pram, she sees a man approach.

This is Joel Cauchi, rough-sleeper, searcher, living with schizophrenia, estranged from his family.

He’s holding a 30cm kitchen knife.

Days earlier he was learning to surf at Bondi. Hours ago he was sitting at Saigon Noodle downstairs, eating a curry. Minutes ago he was entering the mall after a day of approach and retreat, edging in and out.

And now he’s holding a 30cm kitchen knife and plunging it into the baby’s body.

And then Ashlee’s body.

As blood pours out of her, Ashlee turns to two men standing nearby, strangers, a pair of middle-aged brothers she doesn’t know, and thrusts the baby at them, begging for help.

They grab clothes from nearby racks, using the fabric to try and stop the baby’s bleeding, as others rush to help Ashlee.

She will never hold the baby again.

Someone calls Triple 0.

But before the paramedics and the helicopters and the tactical cops comes Amy Scott, roaring up to the mall, leaping out, racing past shops as fleeing shoppers tell her where to find the knifeman.

She is running at top speed, sprinting past Boost Juice, past Cotton On Kids, followed by a small group of men, one carrying a white metal chair.

Amy Scott is wearing her uniform pants, boots and a short-sleeve shirt; no stab-proof vest, no body armour.

She has handcuffs and capsicum spray and a Taser on her belt, but she unclips her Glock.

Scott sees Cauchi and orders him to drop the knife.

He doesn’t.

She shoots him three times in the chest.

And then, as Ashlee Good’s life is draining away, and two strangers are cradling her baby, Amy Scott drops to her knees and performs cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Cauchi, trying to revive the man she’s just killed.

A long trail of dark red blood pools on the cream marble tiles.

Inspector Scott assesses Joel Cauchi.

Scott runs into the Chanel store, where two women lie on the ground. She performs CPR on one.

Paramedics are rushing Ashlee Good and her baby out of the centre, into ambulances and under lights and sirens towards calm clinical expertise - Ashlee to St Vincent’s in Darlinghurst, the baby to Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick.

Both go into surgery. Ashlee Good cannot be saved.

Still at the scene, Amy Scott surrenders her weapon. It’s now a critical incident investigation. She returns to Waverley Police Station and speaks to her bosses, all the way up to Commissioner Karen Webb. She’ll be formally interviewed in days to come.

Late at night, Inspector Scott goes home. She doesn’t sleep.

“Amy is content with what she had to do,’’ Police Association president Kevin Morton says.

Sydney reels with shock, and rallies with sorrowful admiration.

For the woman who, in the last moments of life, fought to save her child.

And for the woman who ran towards death himself, and took away his power.