NEWS
Chris Lynch
Chris Lynch is a journalist, videographer and content producer, broadcasting from his independent news and production company in Christchurch, New Zealand.
A man who carried out a deadly stabbing rampage at Westfield in Bondi, Sydney, has been identified as a 40-year-old from Queensland.
Joel Cauchi killed six people and injured at least a dozen more in an attack in the shopping centre.?
The victims included 38-year-old woman Ash Good, the mother of a nine-month-old baby girl who was also wounded in the attack.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb confirmed four women and one man died at the scene, in addition to the attacker.
Good died later in hospital.
According to Channel 9 News, Good tried to save her daughter after they were both stabbed, handing her baby to two strangers as she fought for life.
Her baby daughter remains in a serious condition at the Sydney Children’s Hospital.
As of Sunday morning, 12 people remain in hospital.
Sky News Australia host Laura Jayes revealed she knew Ms Good personally and paid an emotional tribute to the woman who was a “mother in the prime of her life”.
“She has a beautiful circle of friends. She’s a beautiful woman. She was an incredible athlete. And she had the world at her feet. She got married in recent years,” Jayes said on Saturday night.
The hero police officer who confronted the attacker has been reported as New South Wales police inspector Amy Scott.
Scott who was near the Westfield shopping centre where the attacks took place approached the attacker alone.
Coming up behind him, Scott is believed to have told the offender to drop the knife.
After the attacker allegedly turned around and lunged at her, she then shot the him in the chest.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has praised Ms Scott’s efforts saying: ‘there is no doubt she saved lives.’