Inspector Amy Scott, the officer who shot and killed Joel Cauchi at Bondi Westfield, gave a detailed account of the incident at an inquest. She described facing Cauchi alone, without backup or protective vest, knowing her chances of survival were slim. She recounted the moment she fired her weapon, hitting Cauchi but emphasizing the speed and intensity of the situation. Her actions earned her the Commissioner's Valour Award.
The testimony included accounts from bystanders who bravely attempted to stop Cauchi, and other officers who arrived on the scene. Chief Inspector Chris Whalley, visibly moved, described the young officers' dedication and compassion, while Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Marks highlighted the vicarious trauma police experience in such events.
The inquest's focus is on the failures of the mental health system in treating Cauchi, who suffered from schizophrenia and had stopped taking medication years before the attack. His family's attempts to get him help, and the police's repeated interactions with Cauchi, underscored the systemic issues leading to the tragedy. Inspector Scott suggested that mental health professionals could be better integrated into police responses to such crises. Whalley further emphasized the significant strain mental health crises place on police resources.
The Frenchmen were armed with heavy, metre-long bollards and threw them at Cauchi, trying to halt his advance up an escalator.
“I knew I needed to stop him, even if it meant hurting him,” Despreaux later told police.
Scott said she knew police facing such attackers have a 60 to 70 per cent chance of survival when accompanied by a partner, and wearing a protective vest. She had neither.
“I felt nauseous, I resigned myself to the fact that I was probably going to die,” Scott said.
The group raced to the fifth floor of the centre, where Scott instructed everyone to stay behind her, hand on her holstered pistol.
Cauchi had stopped on the air bridge on level five and was rocking on his feet.
“I saw a lady and a pram, two ladies and a pram, one had run away, but another had hidden behind a large pot plant about 15 metres on the other side of Joel,” Scott told the inquest.
“I mouthed at her to ‘run’.”
Cauchi turned and looked towards the woman with the pram.
“I yelled out ‘mate’ to get his attention back to me,” the inspector said.
Cauchi sprinted towards the officer with the large knife out.
“He was going to kill me,” Scott said.
CCTV showed Scott drawing her weapon and stepping back. She fired her weapon once.
“It’s a peculiar thing, it’s very fast, but in my mind it was very slow. I knew my first shot had hit him from the jolt of his body, but he continued to come towards me.”
She fired twice more. The second shot hit Cauchi, the third hit the pot plant where the mother had been sheltering seconds earlier.
Scott has been universally hailed as a hero for her actions and was recognised with the Commissioner’s Valour Award.
On Tuesday, she used her first moments in the witness box to reach out to the families of the dead and the survivors of the attack.
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Scott was resolute throughout her evidence except for one moment when her voice broke.
“We think that police don’t feel fear, don’t feel the burden and pressures of what everyday humans do,” Scott said.
“I can assure you that they do.
“And whilst I was the person that faced Joel, those young officers ran [into Bondi Westfield] with the exact same intentions.”
“That day, as tragic as it is, restored some faith in humanity and the goodness of the people.”
A second senior officer, Chief Inspector Chris Whalley, took command of the scene at Bondi that afternoon.
He asked a group of young police officers why they were standing in a strange location, before realising they were near one of the bodies.
“Because I don’t want to leave them alone,” the officers replied.
“It’s an incident I won’t forget,” Whalley said, in tears.
The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Marks, said police officers who use lethal force experience “vicarious trauma”.
“It is almost the case that 9/10 cases involve mentally ill people,” Marks said on Monday.
The central theme of the inquest is shaping up to be failures of the mental health system to properly treat Cauchi, who was living with schizophrenia.
Cauchi had come off medication five years before the attack.
His Queensland psychiatrist told Cauchi to “self-determine” whether he should take medication again, and he decided not to.
But Cauchi’s mother was found notes from her son expressing belief he was “under Satanic control”.
In late 2023, Queensland police were called to the family home in Toowoomba after Cauchi’s father confiscated his son’s knives.
“He really needs to see a doctor, but he does not know he is sick,” his mother told police.
Scott told the inquest it would have been a useful opportunity for a mental health service to have accompanied police and intervened in Cauchi’s deterioration.
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“NSW Police are regularly called and required to respond to people in mental health crisis,” Scott said.
“My staff, every day, are dealing with at least one job of that nature.”
Whalley, the mental health co-ordinator for Sydney’s eastern suburbs, said his officers record up to 170 mental health crisis responses each month. Mental health is second only to domestic violence in occupying police resources.
“The involvement of police generally is not helpful,” he said.
“I think there’s an opportunity to improve outcomes for people, and those outcomes might not involve police.”
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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