INCREDIBLE BRAVERY
Hero who fought Sydney knifeman Joel Cauchi to stop him reaching kids’ play area says attacker’s eyes were ’empty’
Watch as the brave civilian recalls the moment he came face to face with the knifeman
A HERO bystander who bravely faced down the rampaging Sydney mall knifeman has told of how the killer's eyes were "empty".
The French construction worker confronted Joel Cauchi with a bollard to stop him from reaching a children's play area in the Aussie shopping centre.
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Cauchi, 40, unleashed terror on Westfield Bondi Junction yesterday afternoon, stabbing nine people and killing five women - including first-time mum Dr Ash Good - and one man.
Brave Damien Guerot told of the terrifying moment he came face to face with Cauchi and stared into his "empty eyes".
Dramatic footage showed the construction worker standing at the top of an escalator, holding a bollard like a weapon, as Cauchi crept up the stairs towards him armed with a large blade.
Guerot heroically acted as a human shield, preventing the attacker from accessing the upper level - where dozens of children were playing on the first day of school holidays, the reports.
More on the Sydney stabbing
He told : "I just see someone do something crazy.
"We tried to catch him but he was going down the stairs, then we saw him going down so we followed, tried to maybe throw the bollard at him but we couldn’t."
Guerot was also captured on video running after Inspector Amy Scott as she chased Cauchi through the shopping centre.
He ran with a metal cafe chair in his hand, flanked by other bystanders, before Cauchi turned and raised a knife at Insp Scott.
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The inspector, who happened to be nearby when the attack happened, fired a volley of shots at the knifeman and shot him dead.
Guerot said of Cauchi: "The eyes was like empty eyes, he wasn’t there," adding that Insp Scott "was actually the hero, she did the job".
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Guerot and his friend Silas Despreaux, both construction workers employed by a small building firm on the North Shore, were at the shopping centre together when Cauchi stabbed six people to death.
A friend of both Guerot and Despreaux's said the pair were doing "OK" after the incident, but "it's a very strange thing for someone".
The heroic efforts of bothpolice and civilians, such as Guerot, who stepped up amid the violent chaos have been praised by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other world leaders.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb commended the efforts of Insp Scott on Saturday, telling reporters: "She showed enormous courage and bravery, and she will process obviously that."
Mr Albanese said: "There is no doubt she saved lives through her action and it is a reminder that those people who wear uniform are people who rush to danger, not away from it and I give thanks to every one of them for the actions they have taken up to now."
Many other accounts of local heroism have emerged since Cauchi launched his attack on innocent shoppers.
Two men told of how they helped mum Dr Ash Good, 38, and her baby who had both been stabbed, pressing shirts to the infant's wounds in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Key moments in Sydney stabbing tragedy
- Knifeman stabs nine people, including a nine-month-old baby
- Mum throws injured baby to nearby men in final act of love
- Five women and one man confirmed dead
- Assailant shot and killed after raising knife at inspector
- Cops say attack is not thought to be terror-related
- Baby among eight victims in serious to critical condition
- Attacker, 40, is known to law enforcement
- First-time mum Dr Ash Good named as one of six victims killed
- Queensland man Joel Cauchi named as killer
Cauchi had stabbed the tot as she lay in the pram before turning his knife on her horrified mum.
Mum and osteopath Dr Good threw her injured baby to the brothers out of sheer desperation.
Tragically, she died of her injuries as her baby was treated in surgery.
The baby remains in Sydney Children’s Hospital in a "serious but stable" condition.
Witnesses who were shopping inside the centre said they heard screaming before they saw the attacker "indiscriminately swiping" at people as he calmly walked along the corridors.
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Other civilians were reported to have provided make-shift medical aid to stabbing victims.
Five of the six people who tragically died in the attack have been named as security guard Faraz Tahir, 30; Pikria Darchia, 55; architect Jade Young, 47; Dawn Singleton, 25; and Ashlee Good, 38.
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