Heartbreaking evidence of ambo forced to wait outside Westfield as patient lay dying

A decorated NSW Ambulance paramedic was forced to wait outside Bondi Junction Westfield fearing patients were dying from knife wounds inflicted by mass killer Joel Cauchi because emergency services feared a second attacker was loose in the centre.

Ashlee Good, 38, Dawn Singleton, 25, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Faraz Tahir, 30, and Pikria Darchia, 55, were killed during Cauchi’s three-minute knife attack on 13 April 2024 before he was shot dead by NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.

Critical care paramedic Chris Wilkinson treated the injured at Bondi Junction Westfield. Credit: Edwina Pickles

A coronial inquest into the tragedy has this week heard how police briefly feared a second attacker had been involved and searched the centre and pored through CCTV trying to ascertain if Cauchi had acted alone.

Critical care paramedic Christopher Wilkinson sped to Bondi Junction from Bankstown as the first emergency calls came through and arrived at the shopping centre at 4.03pm, less than half an hour after Cauchi was shot dead.

Security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, was stabbed and killed by Cauchi.

He found paramedics and stretchers lined up outside the Westfield, and a police officer posted at the door.

Wilkinson said he learned the centre was being treated as a “hot zone”, meaning paramedics could not go inside as Tactical Operations Unit police swept the area.

“There were snippets of information, from the shots fired, that’s why they thought there was a second offender,” Wilkinson, a veteran with four decades of experience, told the inquest.

“I was trying to understand if people weren’t coming out, or if we weren’t allowed in.”

One of the few paramedic crews inside the Westfield reached security guard Faraz Tahir at 3.58pm, about 24 minutes after he had been stabbed once in the abdomen.

They took over Tahir’s treatment from the police, with the 30-year-old by then in a critical condition.

Ambulances parked outside Bondi Westfield on the day of the attack.

The paramedics stretchered Tahir outside at 4.07pm where Wilkinson and his colleagues performed emergency surgery on the roadside at 4.15pm.

Tahir did not survive.

“The family can rest assured we did everything to try and save his life,” Wilkinson said, as Tahir’s brothers sat in court listening to his evidence.

The brothers of heroic security guard Faraz Tahir, Sheraz and Muzafar, have since moved to Australia and watched the inquest on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy

The injuries of five of the six people killed at Bondi were declared “unsurvivable” by medical experts. Tahir’s were deemed “probably unsurvivable” and it was “extremely unlikely” that anything could have saved him.

Wilkinson said he felt frustrated and inadequate for being forced to wait outside the shopping centre.

“When Dawn Singleton was stabbed, she asked the bystander to ring the ambulance,” Wilkinson said.

“There’s an expectation that an ambulance will arrive.”

Wilkinson had in his storied career worked with police in the most dangerous operations, including the hunt for killer Malcolm Naden, the Thredbo landslide and a mass shooting in Sydney.

But standing outside Bondi Junction Westfield, Wilkinson could only worry that there were more people like Tahir needing his help.

“In my experience of 42 years as a special casualty access to a critical care paramedic, I felt inadequate. I had been forced to stay on the outside when I thought people may be passing away on the inside,” he said.

The Westfield was not formally declared a hot zone by NSW Ambulance until 4.28pm. By that time, all patients had been evacuated.

The declaration was made by NSW Ambulance Assistant Commissioner Brent Armitage, unaware that police had moments earlier viewed CCTV and broadcast their own internal message confirming there was no second attacker.

Armitage denied a claim he told a senior police officer “if any of my paramedics are hurt or stabbed it will be on your head”.

The hot zone call was never rescinded by NSW Ambulance, Armitage told the inquest.

The declaration did not result in any loss of life as all patients had been treated.

Wilkinson said there was nothing wrong with how the paramedics had acted on the day, but “things need to change” regarding how they work with police.

What he wanted was a system that would allow paramedics to treat patients faster in dangerous situations, he told the inquest.

“What I would have liked to have seen is ... two stretchers and paramedics go in, escorted by police, and pick up those patients, and bring them back to a treatment centre,” Wilkinson said.

“But unfortunately, if we’re not allowed in that warm or hot zone, there is a delay. And sometimes that delay costs lives.”

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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