Making sense of the Bondi Junction attack

News report: Breaking news on a major police operation underway in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

News report: Very chaotic scenes here at Bondi Junction this evening.

Witness: I saw people running quite clearly in one direction and behind them was a man with a knife running towards different people.

Witness: I was just like living my life and then I thought I was going to die. I just like everything, every moment just playing through my head. Like I was so scared.

Andrew Reid, lifeguard: It was just victim after victim sort of spread out about every 50 metres.

Witness: If she didn’t shoot him, well, he would have kept going. He was on the rampage.

Witness: To think that it’s, you know, the amount of people who’ve now been injured and have died just going to do their Saturday afternoon shop and never coming home. I can’t imagine.

Sam Hawley: It was a warm, sunny autumn afternoon. And like most Saturdays, the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east was heaving with shoppers when tragedy unfolded. A 40-year-old Queensland man armed with a knife made his way through the mall stabbing innocent shoppers, killing six people. The attack has left families mourning, thousands of people traumatised and a community trying to make sense of it all. I’m Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily.

Xanthe Mallett: My name is Dr. Xanthe Mallett and I’m an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Newcastle.

Sam Hawley: Xanthe, this is a horrific attack, of course, and shocking for everyone. I want to unpack with you what unfolded on Saturday afternoon. We know the offender entered Westfield at 3.20 when the mall was absolutely packed, wasn’t it, with people?

Xanthe Mallett: Absolutely, and I think that was fully intentful. It’s a Saturday afternoon, very popular place. There were going to be thousands of people passing through Bondi Westfield at that time, and I think that they absolutely knew that because they wanted to maximise their choice of victims.

Sam Hawley: And the victims were five women aged between 20 and 55 and one man in his 30s. A lot of focus has been on the 38-year-old woman, Ash Good. She died in hospital after the attack and her nine-month-old baby is in hospital after having surgery. So that’s just incredibly shocking.

Xanthe Mallett: Yeah, and I think it takes a certain type of person to undertake these crimes. Obviously, I think there was selection of victims. I think that was, again, intentful. I think that he chose females or those he felt were more vulnerable and easier targets, and I think that’s shown in some of the footage that we’ve seen. There was one particular clip I’m referring to where he’s approaching a family and the male stands his ground and he deviates his path. And I think that shows that he was intentful, this was premeditated, he did plan this, and he’s not in some sort of frenzy because he’s making decisions. I’m not saying they’re logical decisions, but in his mind, he is making choices between who he does engage with and who he doesn’t.

Sam Hawley: The New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner, Anthony Cooke, revealed the identity of the offender on Sunday morning.

Anthony Cooke, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner: A 40-year-old man from Queensland, Joel Cauchi, has been identified as the offender in this matter. We are continuing investigations in relation to him.

Sam Hawley: What do we know about him?

Xanthe Mallett: We know he’s a 40-year-old male, I believe. He has been named, but these are all allegations still at this stage. There’s a long, long, long way to go in this investigation. Apparently, he’s had mental health problems. I’m wondering if a picture is being kind of developed here of somebody who’s maybe disenfranchised, feels possibly rejected. I certainly see a lot of anger and rage in these crimes. He’s gone there, busy time of day, to commit as much carnage as possible and is choosing vulnerable victims. I mean, it says something that he would harm a nine-month-old baby.

Sam Hawley: Police say they have received no evidence whatsoever that this attack was driven by any particular motive or ideology, that the offender was, though, mentally ill.

Xanthe Mallett: Yes, they’ve got to develop now a very detailed profile of this individual. And whilst they’ve made clear that they believe that this was… He was acting alone and this is not terror-related, as in ideological in nature. Clearly, he was there to create terror, whether that was for a bigger picture or because of his own personal vendetta, potentially. So he certainly caused terror. And I think that there’ll be so many traumatised victims. Thousands of people would have been passing through Bondi. So this has impacted a significant number of people and I think that everyone involved needs to be commended for their swift response. Some of the people in the shops who protected others, very young staff would have been working in Bondi over the weekend. And I think everyone pulled together and I think that should really be commended, that everyone was so focused on protecting other people.

Sam Hawley: As the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, points out, there are heroes in this story, aren’t there?

Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: Today, Bondi Junction was a scene of shocking violence, but it was also witness to the humanity and the heroism of our fellow Australians. Our brave police, our first responders, and, of course, everyday people who could never have imagined that they would face such a moment.

Xanthe Mallett: Yeah, they absolutely are heroes. I mean, obviously, we have to, first of all, look at the inspector who responded, who apparently ran down from the local police station, about 300 metres, and ran in not knowing what she was facing, not knowing if it was a lone offender. You know, imagine in the moment, trying to figure out what’s going on, who the risk actually is being caused by, and how to respond alone. And obviously, you know, she is a police officer, that’s her job, but it still took a great deal of courage to do that and to respond so calmly under the circumstances and to deal with the offender and then offer first aid. So I think she, first of all, needs to be commended, but so many people stepped in to protect other people, to lock down the shops, to make as many people safe as possible, and I think that’s a story that’s going to continue to come out, that whilst what has happened is awful, the fast actions and protection of a number of people stopped this from being worse.

Sam Hawley: And the New South Wales Premier has paid tribute to the officer.

Chris Minns, NSW Premier: And, of course, Inspector Amy Scott, who ran towards danger, showed professionalism and bravery and, without a shadow of a doubt, saved many, many lives in the last 24 hours.

Sam Hawley: And then, of course, there were people like Andrew Reid, who was a lifesaver, who was at the mall at the time, and he left the safety of a shop to go and help the injured. So incredible bravery.

Andrew Reid, lifeguard: And I could see this woman was bleeding profusely, and I was like, wow, she’s in a bad way. So I thought, I’ve got to help. So I went down to the next level, level four in Myer, and went to go out, and a guy stopped me and said, mate, you can’t go. And I said, mate, I’m a lifeguard, I need to go and help that lady. She’s bleeding pretty badly. And he goes, you sure? And I was like, yeah, lift the shutter up. So he lifted the shutter up and let me out, and I went around the corner.

Xanthe Mallett: Yes, I’ve seen that interview too. Yes, I mean, I think people really were putting themselves in danger to protect others. And so whilst this is an awful event, I think there are signs of real strength here and community spirit that people would actually leave the safety of a shop and be let out to go and help the wounded. And heartbreaking stories too, you know, the mother handing over her baby to other people. So, you know, hoping for some first aid. So, you know, there are some heroes, and I think they’ll be commended over the days moving forward.

Sam Hawley: And we know that Joel Cauchi was known to police, to Queensland police. Queensland’s Police Assistant Commissioner, Roger Lowe, says that he was never arrested or charged with any criminal offence before.

Roger Lowe, Qld Police Assistant Commissioner: He has been in contact with the police, primarily in the last four to five years. Mental health in society is not a crime. And we do not run an intelligence regime on persons who suffer from mental health. There would only be an exchange of information if a person were to present such a security risk in society that we would need to monitor that behaviour.

Xanthe Mallett: I think it’s far too early to speculate as to what monitoring should have been taking place. That is all to come out in the wash, as it were, over the weeks and months that have followed. This is going to be a huge investigation.

Sam Hawley: The New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns, says they’ll be investigating everything so they can try and prevent anything like this happening again.

Chris Minns, NSW Premier:: An across the board review, not just in relation to New South Wales Police, but health and other major agencies is obviously taking place.

Sam Hawley: We know in this country we have incredibly strong gun laws since the Port Arthur massacre. And these sorts of killings, they’re really rare, aren’t they? But we do still see them.

Xanthe Mallett: We do. The closest that I can guess I could liken it to was the Bourke Street stabbings. Back in 2018.

News report: A man got out of the car brandishing a knife and started to attack.

Xanthe Mallett: When three people were stabbed and one person sadly died. And again we saw brave members of the public coming and stepping in in that instance to stop more people being harmed.

News report: Bystanders used whatever they could find, including a shopping trolley, to keep the man at bay. When that wasn’t enough, police opened fire.

Xanthe Mallett: But certainly our gun laws have helped. We saw 35 people obviously die sadly in 1996 in the Port Arthur massacre. But the changes to gun laws have certainly diminished the likelihood of a mass shooting again. But obviously knives are so available and we’ve seen a rise in knife crime, especially amongst young people carrying knives. But certainly mass stabbings like this are thankfully rare. But how you stop knife crime in this type of instance is very difficult, given knives are so widely available.

Sam Hawley: Yeah, I was going to say much harder to control knives. We don’t have obviously metal detectors on the front of our shopping centres here like they do in other countries and I presume we don’t want them.

Xanthe Mallett: No, we don’t. Unfortunately, these type of events though, awful when they occur, are rare. But you know, every one of us in our kitchen drawers has got lethal weapons. I mean, you go to any kitchen shop, you can buy carving knives. And so I think that is a whole different discussion, how we would limit the access to knives if that’s something that we even want to do. Obviously, knives are not sold to under 18s anyway, but when people are adults, it’s going to be incredibly difficult.

Sam Hawley: As you mentioned, we saw people hiding in shops. The evacuation alarm was sounding in the shopping centre. Incredibly traumatic for every person that was there. Witnesses described the stores locking down. Are there protocols, Xanthe, for shopping centres or other large venues when this kind of attack occurs? Is the way people reacted the best way to react, I suppose?

Xanthe Mallett: Yeah, I think so. There certainly are protocols in place. And with that alarm, everyone then knew in terms of the people working in the shops what that meant. And they knew that they needed to protect as many people by putting those shutters down. So there are absolutely protocols in place and we saw those brought in and that may well have saved lives. They certainly protected a very significant number of people. So again, you know, this pre-planning and cool heads help save lives. Well,

Sam Hawley: Xanthe, do you think there’s anything we can do to prevent this type of attack happening again?

Xanthe Mallett: Well, that’s a huge question, isn’t it? And I think if any recommendations come out, it will be after that full investigation. They will look at all aspects of this. And if something can be done, recommendations will be made. And I’m sure that the police minister will take those very seriously, because obviously nobody wants to see another event like this in the future.

Sam Hawley: Xanthe Mallett is a criminologist and an associate professor at the University of Newcastle. If this incident is causing you or someone you know to stress, there is help available. You can call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Kids Helpline, Beyond Blue and Headspace are also there to help. Join me later today as we’ll be covering the long-awaited judgement in the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann. That will be in our feed on Monday late afternoon. This episode was produced by Bridget Fitzgerald with audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I’m Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.