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A “floridly psychotic” man who stabbed six people in a shopping centre was not specifically targeting women, the lead police investigator has said.
Joel Cauchi had been forgotten by the mental health system when he armed himself with a 30-centimetre long knife and rampaged through Sydney’s Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday afternoon on 13 April, 2024.
Six people — including five women — were killed and 10 others injured before the 40-year-old was shot dead by police.
As an inquest into the events began on Monday, Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Marks said Cauchi had no terrorist ideology and had not launched the attack targeting women.
“He appeared to attack people who were not ready, that didn’t know what was happening,” he told NSW Coroners Court.
“I just believe that whoever was in his way — where he was running — was who he attacked.”
‘Distressing’ browsing history
Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC described the 40-year-old’s web browsing history before the attack as “distressing”.
“Cauchi was preoccupied with weapons, with violence and with mass killing,” she said.
This interest in death and murder included searches for the traits of serial killers and bands they loved, as well as mass stabbings in Australia and the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in the USA.
Notes on his phone included references to planning a strike at a mall, the court was told.
The searches showed a seriously unwell man who was far from the support of his parents, Dwyer said.
Expert psychiatric evidence is expected to show Cauchi was “floridly psychotic” at the time.
The notes in his phone were far removed from how the 40-year-old appeared on the day of the attacks and did not prove any actual motive, she told the court.
Dwyer described how Cauchi went from victim to victim, and how bystanders rushed to help those wounded or assist paramedics or police.
, were all killed.
From left, Pikria Darchia, Faraz Tahir, Ashlee Good and Jade Young were among the six people killed at the Bondi Junction stabbing attack. Source: AAP / Supplied Images
Wrong type of alert issued
The stabbings started about 40 seconds after the sole security guard in the centre’s command post went to the bathroom.
This meant there was no one actively monitoring the 40-year-old’s movements via the CCTV network for about a minute before the officer returned.
Security officers issued the wrong type of alert, telling customers to evacuate instead of warning that an armed offender was on the loose.
That alert, which flashed up on signage within the shopping centre, was only activated after Cauchi had been shot and killed by the first officer on the scene, Inspector Amy Scott, Dwyer said.
An “extremely loud” alarm hampered communication between emergency responders on the ground.
Dwyer described how confusion between security guards, police officers and paramedics caused suspicions that a second, ultimately non-existent attacker, was in the mall.
This meant the area was declared a “hot zone” after Cauchi was shot dead, which barred ambulance officers from entering the scene.
Fortunately, all victims had been treated by paramedics at that time, Dwyer said.
She said Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teen and had been successfully treated for more than 18 years while he lived in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.
But by June 2019, he had ceased taking anti-psychotic medication despite his mother raising concerns of a possible relapse.
His decision to move to Brisbane in March 2020, right at the onset of the COVID pandemic, meant his psychiatric sessions ceased and his condition deteriorated until the tragic events in Bondi Junction.
After a consultation with a GP in January 2021, a doctor found Cauchi was a “fit and proper” person to get a gun licence.
While the Queensland police force sent over a “statement of eligibility”, no further steps to get a proper licence were sent.
The inquest continues on Tuesday.
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