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Sydney stabbing: Family pays tribute to mother killed trying to save baby from knifeman

In Europe
April 14, 2024
Ashey Good, 38, was stabbed to death while trying to protect her baby daughter in the Sydney shopping centre attack

Ashey Good, 38, was stabbed to death while trying to protect her baby daughter in the Sydney shopping centre attack

The family of a mother who died trying to save her baby after a knifeman went on a killing spree in Sydney has remembered her as an ‘‘all round outstanding human’’.

Ashlee Good, 38, died in hospital on Saturday evening after being stabbed by a man at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre.

In a statement on Sunday morning, Ms Good’s family said that they were ‘‘reeling from the terrible loss of Ashlee, a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all round outstanding human’’.

‘‘We appreciate the well-wishes and thoughts of members of the Australian public who have expressed an outpouring of love for Ashlee and our baby girl,’’ they said.

Ms Good’s nine-month-old baby daughter remained in Sydney Children’s Hospital where she underwent surgery for stab wounds sustained in the attack.

‘‘We are so grateful for the expert care and attention of the medical team,’’ the statement read.

‘‘We would also like to thank the New South Wales Police for their kindness and diligence in this tragedy and emergency services for getting our baby the care she needed as quickly as possible.

‘‘To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not – words cannot express our gratitude.’’

Police on Sunday identified the attacker as Joel Cauchi, a mentally unwell man who had recently moved to Sydney from Toowoomba in Queensland.

Cauchi, 40, had reportedly lived with schizophrenia and had used drugs including methamphetamine and psychedelics.

Ms Good, an experienced osteopath, was walking through the shopping centre when the attacker stabbed the baby in her pram, before turning the weapon on her, the Australian Telegraph reported.

She desperately tried to save her daughter’s life by handing her to nearby strangers, eye witnesses reported.

“She handed us the baby and said ‘please help, help’,” a witness told Channel Nine at the scene. “She was bleeding from her head, her face … the baby was bleeding.”

The Sydney mother was rushed to St Vincent’s hospital in a critical condition, but died soon after arriving.


Table of Contents

07:18 PM BST

We’re pausing our live coverage

We’re ending our live coverage of the Sydney stabbing attacks here for today.

Check back to our homepage for the latest updates.


06:09 PM BST

Sunak calls mall attack ‘truly devastating’


06:01 PM BST

Pictured: Police cordon off an area outside Westfield Bondi Junction

BONDI JUNCTION, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 13: NSW police cordon off an area outside Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024 in Bondi Junction, Australia. Six victims, plus the offender, are confirmed dead following an incident at Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, Sydney. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

BONDI JUNCTION, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 13: NSW police cordon off an area outside Westfield Bondi Junction on April 13, 2024 in Bondi Junction, Australia. Six victims, plus the offender, are confirmed dead following an incident at Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, Sydney. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Mandatory Credit: Photo by STEVEN SAPHORE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (14433153i) Emergency services are seen at Bondi Junction after police responded to reports of multiple stabbings inside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney, Australia, 13 April 2024. New South Wales Police confirmed that at least six people died following a knife attack carried out by a man who was later shot dead by police. Several others were hospitalized with some in critical conditions. At least six dead following stabbing attack at Sydney mall, Australia - 13 Apr 2024


05:45 PM BST

Police don’t believe killings were terror-related

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told a press conference that her officers believe the attacker “is a 40-year-old man”.

She added: “If in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we don’t have fears for that person holding an ideation – in other words, that it’s not a terrorism incident.

”He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to identify him formally.”


05:30 PM BST

Watch: the ‘hero’ policewoman who confronted the knife attacker


05:21 PM BST

‘I saw a dead body right in front,’ says witness to attack

A woman said she saw two dead bodies before she hid in a sportswear shop to evade the shopping mall attacker.

She told ABC News: “At the counter while I was as paying I heard this screaming of kids, women and men outside the shop – as soon as I turned my face to look I saw a guy who was wearing this green outfit, jersey materials, with shorts and a t-shirt with a very massive knife on hand.

”Then I saw a dead body right in front.

”There was massive (amounts of) blood around that body, a few metres after there was another dead body as well on the floor which was pretty scary.

”He had already stabbed two and they were on the floor and he was trying to turn back, like a U-turn, back to Lululemon shop, then I just screamed ‘where is the safest changing room in which I can go and lock myself’.

”I was really in fear, I was thinking if they couldn’t shut Lululemon door then I would maybe get stabbed – we locked down inside Lululemon for 45 (minutes) to one hour as the police came.”


05:04 PM BST

Police chief praises ‘amazing courage’ of members of the public during attack

New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb has thank shopkeepers and shoppers who “showed amazing courage and bravery” during the attack.

In one example, footage of the incident posted on social media showed a man attempting to fend off the attacker on an escalator by using a bollard.

Rashdan Aqashah, 19, works at the COS store inside the shopping centre and watched the confrontation unfold.

“I saw this one guy fighting with the killer. He was holding the pole, trying to throw a pole at the escalator,” he said. “I grabbed my manager to shut the store door. It was just in front of our store.”


04:57 PM BST

Watch: ‘Hero’ policewoman runs towards attacker


04:44 PM BST

Pope Francis ‘deeply saddened’ by stabbing attack

Pope Francis was “deeply saddened” by the Sydney stabbing attack, the Vatican said in a statement.

“Pope Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the violent attack in Sydney and conveys his spiritual solidarity to all those affected by this senseless tragedy,” Pietro Parolin, the Cardinal Secretary of State, said in a message addressed to the Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Colin Fisher.


04:32 PM BST

Pictured: Australian police giving press conference

New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb issuing a statement

New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb issuing a statement – UNPIXS


04:02 PM BST

King ‘horrified’ by ‘senseless’ stabbing

King Charles has said that he and his wife Queen Camilla were “horrified” by “senseless” the stabbings at a shopping centre in Sydney that killed six people.

“My wife and I were utterly shocked and horrified to hear of the tragic stabbing incident in Bondi,” Charles said in a statement released by Buckingham Palace.

“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed during such a senseless attack.

“While details of these shocking circumstances are still emerging, our thoughts are also with those who were involved in the response, and we give thanks for the bravery of the first responders and emergency services,” he added.


03:54 PM BST

Dr Ash Good posted baby video on morning of attack

Just hours before the Sydney stabbing spree, Dr Ash Good, 38, posted a video to Instagram of her daughter in her car seat, eating a snack, to the soundtrack of My Girl by The Temptations.

Dr Good, who was killed in the attack, was an osteopath and health coach who meditated every morning “without fail”, the Australian reported.

Her father, Kerry Good, is a former Australian rules football player.

Journalist Laura Jayes told Sky News the mother was a “beautiful person, a wonderful athlete” and described her husband and family members rushing to hospital. “She was so excited to be a new mother and it’s all just been ripped away this afternoon.”


03:16 PM BST

Watch: ‘Hero’ policewoman runs towards attacker


03:00 PM BST

Pictured: How the attack happened

A victim is given first aid

A victim is given first aid – ABC

Armed police arrive at the scene

Armed police arrive at the scene – ABC


02:46 PM BST

Sydney attacker walked ‘calmly like he was having an ice cream’

An eyewitness has described how the attacker appeared calm as he carried out his murderous rampage.

“They just said run, run, run — someone’s been stabbed,” the witness told ABC TV in Australia. “[The attacker] was walking really calmly like he was having an ice cream in a park. And then he went up the escalators … and probably within about a minute we heard three gunshots.”

Roi Huberman, a sound engineer at ABC TV in Australia, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

“Suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.”

Footage of the Bondi shopping centre shows ambulances and police cars arriving with people streaming out, many with children in their arms.


02:38 PM BST

Pictured: The ‘hero’ policewoman

The policewoman who shot dead the attacker

The policewoman who shot dead the attacker – Pixel8000


02:01 PM BST

Bondi Junction attack ‘beyond distressing’, says Australia politician

Acting New South Wales premier Penny Sharpe called the Bondi Junction attack as “beyond distressing”.

“This is not who we are. This is not the community that we live in. This is not something that any person or any member of our community should have had to experience,” said Ms Sharpe.

“It’s shocking. I’m personally distressed by this, as I’m sure everybody is.

“Tonight we have to have our thoughts with those who have lost loved ones and really stand by those who are fighting for their lives.”


01:54 PM BST

Mapped: Where the attack took place


01:42 PM BST

I now feel ‘scared’ in Australia, says eyewitness

An eyewiness who was working at a cafe inside the centre when the attack happened said it made him feel “scared” living in Australia.

“I’ve felt really safe (in Australia). I’ve been here for six years. I didn’t feel unsafe but now I feel scared,” said Ayush Singh.

Mr Singh helped two old ladies who were having a coffee to hide inside his cafe. He heard three gunshots ring out, then saw the man lying on the ground.

“I saw the whole thing in front of me,” he told AFP. “I saw a lot of people running around, I saw the guy running with the knife and people running away.”


01:36 PM BST

Unnamed hero confronts attacker with bollard

One of the heroes merging from the Sydney stabbing is a man who confronted the knifeman on an escalator.

Footage of the incident shows the man, whose identity is unknown, approaching the attacker with a bollard at the top of an escalator.

As a result, the attacker, who is walking up the escalator during his rampage, is forced to stop in his tracks.


01:12 PM BST

Prince and Princess of Wales ‘shocked and saddened’ by attack


12:46 PM BST

Watch: How the attack unfolded


12:39 PM BST

Mother of injured baby among those killed

A baby and its mother were among those attacked by the unidentified man, who wandered the shopping centre bearing a knife and striking and passersby.

The mother later died in hospital, New South Wales Police reported.

Witnesses said the attacker appeared to choose his victims at random.


12:32 PM BST

Pictured: Police at the scene in Bondi Junction

Police patrol near the crime scene in front of the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall

Police patrol near the crime scene in front of the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall – DAVID GRAY/AFP

Emergency services operate at Bondi Junction

Emergency services operate at Bondi Junction – Shutterstock/STEVEN SAPHORE


12:19 PM BST

Suspect identified as 40-year-old man

The person suspected of carrying out the stabbing attack is a 40 year-old man, New South Wales Police has announced.

Police are waiting to announce the identity of the suspect, but said he is known to law enforcement.

Police said they do not believe it was a terrorist attack.

“If he is the person that we believe, then we don’t have fears of that person holding an ideation. In other words, it’s not a terrorism incident,” said New South Wales Police commissioner Karen Webb.


12:15 PM BST

Nine-month-old baby in surgery

A nine-month old baby is in surgery after being stabbed by a man who went on a stabbing rampage, killing six people, in Sydney, Karen Webb, the New South Wales police commissioner, told a press conference.

So far, five women have died as a result of the attack – four at the Bondi Junction shopping centre and one later in hospital. One of them was the baby’s mother.

A man was also killed at the scene.

Ms Webb said that eight people, including the young child, are in hospitals around Sydney being treated for injuries as a result of the attack.


11:22 AM BST

Pictured: At the scene

A crowd gathers outside Westfield Shopping Centre

A crowd gathers outside Westfield Shopping Centre – Rick Rycroft/Rick Rycroft

Police enter the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall

Police enter the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall – DAVID GRAY/AFP


11:15 AM BST

Eye witness compresses baby’s stab wounds

An eye-witness to the stabbing at the Bondi shopping centre has said that he attempted to compress the wounds of a baby, believed to be nine months old.

“The mum got stabbed and mum came over with a baby and threw it at me,” he said. “I was just holding the baby and trying to compress the baby. Same with the mother, [I was] trying to compress the [bleeding].”

The man, who said he used shirts to staunch the flow of blood, added: “I think the baby’s fine. The mother, unfortunately, she started to have a lot of blood come from her mouth.”


11:08 AM BST

Death toll rises to six

The number of people killed by a knife-wielding assailant in the Bondi shopping centre has climbed to six, police said.

“One last person died at hospital,” a New South Wales police spokesman told AFP.


10:48 AM BST

‘I thought I was going to die’, says eye witness

Hundreds of people streamed out of the Westfield shopping centre following the attack with one saying “I thought I was going to die”, Sky news reported.

Reese Colmenares, an eyewitness who hid in a hardware store with 20 others when people started running out of the mall, said she saw a baby with stab wounds being taken to an ambulance.

“The mother was terrified, the mother was sad, just holding [and] comforting the baby,” she told Reuters.

Two other witnesses said they heard shots fired.

“Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw Swat teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets,” one witness said.

The other said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

“If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage,” said the man, who did not give his name. “She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree.”


10:44 AM BST

Lone policewoman killed assailant

New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke has said a lone police officer confronted the Sydney attacker.

“A single unit officer inspector of police [who] was nearby…went into the centre, directed by a range of people,” Mr Cooke said. “She confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level five [of the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre].

“As he continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him he turned faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.”


10:33 AM BST

Australian PM hails ‘hero’ policewoman who stopped attacker

Antony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, has praised the heroism of a lone female police officer who approached the knife-wielding attacker.

“She entered the proceedings by herself. She is certainly a hero,” Mr Albanese said. “There is no doubt that she saved life through her actions, and it is a reminder that those people who wear uniform are people who rush to danger, not away from it.

“I give thanks for every one of them.”

The prime minister added that the Australian public will be alarmed by events in Sydney. “We understand that the Australian public will be very shocked by this event. Our heart goes out to them,” he said.


10:27 AM BST

Pictured: Scenes outside Bondi shopping centre

People react outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall

People react outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall – DAVID GRAY/AFP

A woman cries as she comes out of the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall

A woman cries as she comes out of the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall – DAVID GRAY/AFP


10:24 AM BST

Australian PM: Bondi junction scene of ‘shocking violence’

Antony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, said Bondi Junction was the scene of “shocking violence” as he hailed the “heroism” of police responders.

“We send our strength to those who have been injured,” Mr Albanese said. “Today Bondi Junction was the seen of shocking violence but it was also witnessed the humanity and heroism of our fellow Australians.”

“That’s confirmation of who we are. Brave, strong together, the prime minister added. “To any Australian affected by this tragedy, every Australian is with you.”


10:21 AM BST

Pictured: Paramedics operate at Bondi shopping centre

Paramedics push stretchers into the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre

Paramedics push stretchers into the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre – David Gray /AFP

A police officer reacts outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre

A police officer reacts outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre – DAVID GRAY/AFP


10:17 AM BST

Pictured: The knife-wielding suspect

Suspected stabber in Westfield Bondi Junction

Suspected stabber in Westfield Bondi Junction – Twitter

At least six people have been killed by the knifeman

At least six people have been killed by the knifeman – Twitter


10:12 AM BST

Prime minister Antony Albanese issues a statement

“Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders,” Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese posted on Twitter.


10:09 AM BST

‘Hundreds’ evacuated from shopping centre

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the shopping centre following the incident, news.com.au reported.

“Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets,” one witness said.

Another said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

“If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage,” said the man, who did not give his name. “She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree.”


10:06 AM BST

Eight people in hospital following stabbing

Eight people, including a child, have been injured in the stabbing spree, a New South Wales Ambulance spokesperson said.

“She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased. I am advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender,” New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told a press conference.


09:58 AM BST

Pictured: the Sydney stabbing suspect

Screengrab of member of public warding off Westfield Bondi stabbing suspect

Screengrab of member of public warding off Westfield Bondi stabbing suspect

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