After a knife attack in Sydney
“Many lives saved” – policewoman celebrated as a hero
A woman brings flowers to an improvised memorial at Bondi Junction. photo
© Rick Rycroft/AP/dpa
When fear of death suddenly reigns in a shopping center in Sydney, Australia on Saturday, Amy Scott doesn’t hesitate. The policewoman quickly follows a knife-wielding man.
Amy Scott can see the terrible bloody crime in a busy shopping center in the Australian metropolis Sydney with six deaths cannot be prevented. But the quick and fearless action with which the policewoman caught and killed a knife-wielding man in the vastness of the mall saved “many, many lives,” says Chris Minns, the head of government of the state of New South Wales. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also celebrates the officer as a hero who “undoubtedly saved lives through her actions.”
But the perpetrator, a 40-year-old man known to the police with mental problems, was able to stab and kill six people within a short space of time: four women and a man died directly at the crime scene in the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center in eastern Sydney near the famous Bondi Beach.
Nine-month-old baby also injured, mother killed
Another woman who tried to protect her nine-month-old baby from the attacker died in hospital from her serious injuries. Her child remains in the intensive care unit after an emergency operation, as the Australian news agency AAP reports. The attacker was able to injure at least 17 people before Scott was able to prevent him from further attacks.
Shortly after 3 p.m. (local time) on Saturday, according to AAP, the man entered the busy shopping center dressed in black. A short time later, reports began circulating about many people fleeing from a man who was brandishing a knife. Scott is already alarmed. While the panicked customers run to the exits or barricade themselves in stores, the officer rushes all alone in the opposite direction, towards the danger – that’s how AAP describes it.
Eyewitness: “He would have continued”
“As she continued to run quickly to catch up with him, he turned around, faced her and raised a knife,” state Police Deputy Chief Anthony Cooke said at a news conference a few hours later. With a gun in his hand, the policewoman asked him to drop the knife, but he did not do so. “She fired a firearm and the person is now dead,” Cooke said. Scott tried in vain to revive the man. This brings the fatal attack to an end. The man is a lone perpetrator, the danger is over, Cooke continued.
“He would have continued, he was on a killing spree,” an eyewitness told Australian broadcaster ABC about the attacker. The police identified him hours later and ruled out a terrorist motive. The 40-year-old had psychological problems and apparently had no ideological or other specific motive, said Cooke. “It seems clear to us at this point that it had to do with his mental health.”
Attacker’s family: Actions are horrific
According to police, the man came to New South Wales from Queensland state last month and used a small storage unit. Officials also found nothing in this that would indicate a motive or ideology. He was known to police in Queensland before the crime, but not for any serious offenses, and he was never arrested. Karen Webb, New South Wales police chief, emphasized that the investigation would also take into account the fact that the man primarily attacked women on Saturday.
His family in Queensland contacted police themselves after seeing footage of him on television. In a statement, she wrote that she was completely devastated by the traumatic events and offered her condolences to the victims, AAP reported. His actions were truly horrific, they said. He had struggled with mental health problems since his youth.
Worldwide sympathy
Condolences also came from abroad. In addition to New Zealand and Pakistan – the country where the male fatality comes from – King Charles III also showed. as head of state Australia’s condolences: “My wife and I were deeply shocked and horrified when we heard about the tragic stabbing in Bondi,” said a message from the Royal Palace. “Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those who were so brutally killed in such a senseless attack.”
“I was just coming out of the gym and just living my life and then I thought I was going to die… I was just so scared,” one woman told ABC. Other witnesses reported grabbing their children and running out of the center along with hundreds of people. Many were crying, as could be seen in photos. The mall remains closed as a crime scene until further notice.