The two witnesses recounted the confrontation as police scrutinise the movements of Cauchi in the lead-up to his horrific stabbing attack on Saturday. The 40-year-old Queensland man visited at least two other Westfield shopping centres in the weeks before he lashed out at 18 people at Bondi Junction with a hunting knife,killing six.
Vinny Jovanovski and Bill Mohana were working at Bondi Westfield metres from where police killed Joel Cauchi.Peter Rae
Vinny Jovanovski was making coffees and smoothies at his cafe,Glo Bar,on level five of Westfield Bondi Junction,when his friend Bill Mohana ran over and asked why screams were filling the upmarket shopping centre.
Mohana had looked down onto the fourth floor and saw a woman lying bloody and motionless on the floor of a boutique store. People were yelling about bombs,crowds were swirling,and confusion was growing.
Mohana ran back to the salon,Hair Royale,to protect his wife,Victoria,and her clients.
Seconds later,Jovanovski looked to his left and saw the glint of a long blade as Cauchi rounded the corner in front of his cafe – they were less than five metres apart.
The men said Inspector Amy Scott was a “warrior” for facing down Cauchi.Supplied
“I didn’t know if it was a machete[or] a toy,it was just an instant as he was turning down the tunnel,” Jovanovski said.
Scott was right behind Cauchi. Jovanovski watched her take aim and “bang,bang”,he said.
Mohana and his wife,Victoria.Supplied
“I saw the pool of blood,I thought ‘wow it’s a lot of blood’,” Jovanovski said.
Everybody froze. Jovanovski helped the elderly women into his kiosk and pressed them against the walls.
Mohana,across the floor,had bundled his wife and clients into a back room and feared the gunshots had come from the attackers. A woman covered her child with her body.
Eventually,police came,and Mohana,along with the others in his shop,realised they had been saved.
“We owe our life to Amy,” Mohana said. “Her courage and bravery,to come running full steam by herself[with] no hesitation,it gives me goosebumps.”
“Like a warrior,a soldier,she ran straight in and killed him – gave him what he deserves.”
Survivors haunted by attack
Mohana and Jovanovski told theHeraldthey are struggling to keep memories of the bloody rampage from their minds.
For Mohana,it was minutes of terror,barricading the door to his shop with his body to protect others. For Jovanovski it was a long stretch of horror as police performed CPR on Cauchi’s body.
“Imagine you’re the one that has to face that. She could have waited for backup – she didn’t do that,” Mohana said.
The pair said Cauchi was a “devil” who had shattered the peace of their lives.
“[Cauchi] deserves hell,he didn’t deserve one minute more for what he had done to those innocent children,the women and the fear and everything he has done to everybody,” Mohana said.
The pair called on Scott to be given “the highest honour” available for NSW Police.
Ashlee Good,38,Dawn Singleton,25,Jade Young,47,Pikria Darchia,55,Yixuan Cheng,27 and Faraz Tahir,30,were killed in the rampage before Scott shot Cauchi dead.
Police investigate Westfield visits by Cauchi before attack
These eyewitness accounts come as police home in on Cauchi’s movements in the lead-up to the attack.
Police sources not authorised to speak publicly said investigators believe Cauchi,a diagnosed schizophrenic whose family said had a fascination with knives,visited at least two other Westfield centres in the weeks prior to the senseless killings.
Cauchi prowls Bondi Junction during his knife rampage.Supplied
Crime Stoppers received a report about a man matching Cauchi’s description at a third shopping centre,Westfield Warringah Mall,a week before his murderous rampage.
The man was wearing a backpack and running down an escalator,the witness said,and looked similar to videos of Cauchi,which circulated online following the Bondi attack.
It is not clear whether Cauchi was scoping the centres out as possible alternate crime scenes or simply visiting them.
When journalists asked NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb whether he visited Parramatta and Penrith Westfield centres,as named in media reports,she said investigators “will be looking at all of those angles”.
The police sources said investigators are also looking into Cauchi’s phone history for signs he may have searched topics related to death.
While five out of six of Cauchi’s victims were women,police have not confirmed he was directly targeting women.
Police Commissioner Karen Webb and Premier Chris Minns at a press conference on Tuesday morning in Surry Hills.Louise Kennerley
However,Cauchi’s father told media outside his Queensland home that his son “wanted a girlfriend,and he’s got no social skills,and he was frustrated out of his brain,” adding he was “loving a monster” who was “a very sick boy”.
US embassy warns travellers to Australia
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stressed the investigation into Cauchi’s motive was ongoing.
Albanese and ASIO boss Mike Burgess were asked on Tuesday morning why authorities deemed a in a Western Sydney church overnight as a terrorism incident but not Cauchi’s mass murder on Saturday.
“Bollard man” Damien Guerot on the escalator of Bondi Junction Westfield.Supplied
“To call it a terrorist attack,you need indications of information or evidence that suggests actually the motivation was religiously motivated or ideologically motivated,” Burgess said. “In the case of Saturday,that was not the case.”
Albanese has also offered a permanent visa to the French construction worker known as “bollard man”,Damien Guerot,who confronted Cauchi during the deadly rampage at the top of an escalator,wielding a bollard.
The shockwaves of the attack continue to reverberate globally,with the US Embassy warning travellers to Australia to “remain vigilant” in the wake of the Bondi killings.
The NSW government is investigating whether security guards should be equipped with in light of the attack.
The tragedy could also accelerate the expansion of police powers in the killer’s home state. Queensland Premier Steven Miles said there was already a compelling case to allow police to stop and search people in shopping centres with hand-held metal detectors – a practice known as “wanding”.
“The events of the weekend make it even more compelling,” Miles said. “Everyone wants to know when they go to the shops there won’t be dangerous offenders with dangerous knives. That’s what wanding would deliver.”
Half of the 12 survivors of Cauchi’s attack have been discharged from hospital. Two women remain in ICU,as does the nine-month-old daughter of victim Ashlee Good. The baby’s condition improved from critical to serious on Monday.
If you or anyone you know needs help,call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see) or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 (and see).
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