#bondi junction

By Victoria Smith 16 April, 2024

Did Joel Cauchi, the man who killed six people in a Sydney shopping centre, do so because he was mentally ill? Or did he do it because he hated women?

Five out of six of Cauchi’s victims were women, which does seem targeted. Nonetheless, according to his family, Cauchi, 40, “battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager”. For this reason, some have found talk of misogyny unseemly, if not exploitative. To categorise Cauchi’s act as male violence against women, if not terrorism underpinned by misogynist ideology, can be appear dismissive of genuine sickness. Sometimes, bad things just happen because people are unwell. 

For women who live with men who have severe mental health diagnoses, there is little comfort in discussions such as these. On the one hand, there is an enormous amount of pressure to downplay the idea that mentally ill men are more likely to be violent than other men (they are, but to say so is viewed as contributing to stigma). On the other hand, is it fair for a man with severe mental illness to be judged by the same moral standards as other men? Shouldn’t we be recognising that they cannot control their perceptions and fears?

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The Sydney attacker was desperate for a girlfriend, his family has revealed as police confirmed that he had targeted women.

Joel Cauchi killed five women and one man during a knife attack on the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre on Saturday.

Karen Webb, the New South Wales police commissioner, said: “The videos speak for themselves. It’s obvious the offender had focused on women and avoided the men.”

The majority of the 12 people Cauchi seriously wounded were female, including a baby girl.

Andrew Cauchi, his father, said on Monday he knew why his mentally unwell son had targeted women. The 76-year-old told reporters outside his home in Queensland: “Because he wanted a girlfriend and he’s got no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain.”

Describing his son as “very sick”, he described trying to deal with the feelings of “loving a monster”.

A “heroic” policewoman who stopped a lone knifeman mid-rampage during a killing spree in a Sydney shopping centre has been named.

In one of several heroic attempts to disarm the attacker on Saturday, Amy Scott, a NSW Police Inspector, walked up calmly behind the attacker and ordered him to drop his weapon.

When he refused to do so and lunged at her with a knife, she shot him.

Six people were killed after the culprit – later identified by police as Queensland man Joel Cauchi – went on a stabbing spree in Westfield Bondi Junction, including a mother whose baby is reportedly now in a critical condition.

People were being Islamophobic before a name was even realised and when for some stupid reasons a false persons name was realised then antisemitism came out.

Here SHE is:

Police Inspector Amy Scott

No one outside the tbl police family will ever truly understand what it means when your mum/sister/aunt/daughter (or: dad/brother/uncle/son) runs into a dangerous situation to save the life of others that could cost her (his) life.

BONDI JUNCTION WESTFIELD ATTACK

Joel Cauchi

13 April 2024

Six people (5 women and 1 man) have been murdered in a mass killing in Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday, when at 3pm, Queensland man Joel Cauchi walked into the shopping centre wearing a green and yellow sport jersey and then left. He returned 10 minutes later and then started stabbing and killing people, mainly targeting women. There are twelve people in hospital suffering serious injuries.

            Ashlee Good was stabbed to death by Cauchi, who also stabbed her 9-month year old baby daughter who had to get emergency surgery. Australian millionaire John Singleton’s daughter, Dawn, 25, was also a victim; and there were also two victims who from overseas.

            There were many heros yesterday, including a man from Russia who tried to prevent the attacker from killing more people by fighting him off with a bollard. There were men who ran after the perpetrator, one of the them carrying a chair. One man walking behind a woman with her children (possibly his partner and children) realised the danger they were in and turned around and attempted blocking the way to protect the three. Instead of running towards the man, Cauchi dodged him and ran into a different direction.

The NSW police officer, Amy Scott, who was the only police officer on site at the time who ran towards Cauchi and shot and killed him and saved more lives in doing so.

            The perpetrator was known to police and had mental health issues. It was said that he had no police record but there are rumours online that he had been previously arrested for DV and assault - however, this is all heresay.

            There was a woman, 36, who was stabbed on Bondi Beach on Friday, 12 April - the day before the Westfield stabbings. The perpetrator of that attack hasn’t been arrested and was still under investigation when the Westfield stabbing took place. Some believe that the Bondi Beach stabbing may have been linked to Cauchi or perhaps it was just a coincidence?

            Some commenters believe he was a drug addict, we don’t know if that is true or not. One man who knew him up in QLD told the media that Cauchi owned knives which he named his ‘everyday knives’. On his Facebook account he described himself as ‘single’. He was known to go to nudist beaches, strip clubs as well as listing himself on an escort website in Sydney in June last year.

            Criminal psychologist Dr Watson-Munro stated that Cauchi ‘knew what he was doing’ and that he was ‘bad not mad’ and ‘there’s clearly planning attached to this’. He stated, “But here was somebody who was on a mission, he knew what he wanted to do and he did it with deadly affect.”

            He came down from QLD to Sydney only a month ago, rented a small storage facility and went to Bondi to learn how to surf. He went surfing at Bondi 6-days ago. In 2010, he was an online English tutor. There is still a lot of information we don’t know as yet as the investigation continues.

6 dead (5 women, 1 man) perpetrated by a man with a knife at Bondi Junction in Sydney. 11 injured, including a baby in critical care.

It could have been so much worse. Im so glad it wasn't worse, that people stood up and tried to fend this piece of shit off, one madlad with a bollard, for the female inspector that ran after him at full speed, with five random blokes behind her, one with a plastic chair of all things. The inspector put the attacker down.

Im so glad for the surflife saver that left the safety of a locked store to provide first aid, to everyone that went to the wounded, to the man that took care of the 9 month old her mother handed to him.

This shit doesn't happen here. It shouldn't. It's a tragedy that will take months to understand.

And already there's right wing dickholes using this to leverage and win brownie points in their eternal game of "who can be the most racist fuckhead".

My heart aches.

Also if you're a yank and you mention guns here as a positive, congrats on not learning the lessons from your own country.