JOEL Cauchi killed six people in a stabbing at a shopping centre in Sydney.
Here is everything you need to know about Cauchi.
1
Who was Joel Cauchi?
Joel Cauchi, 40, has been identified as the attacker of the 2024 Bondi Junction stabbings in Sydney on April 13, 2024.
He wore a rugby league jersey and wielding a knife, which was caught on a security camera of the shopping centre.
According to 9 News AUS, he was working as a male escort in 2023 and had a profile on the website Empire Escorts.
The profile read: “I am an athletic, good looking 39-year-old guy.
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“Let me gently massage all of your body, and have me in any and every way!”
Cauchi showed an interest in knives on his social media accounts.
Police told news outlets that he previously called them to claim “domestic violence” after his parents hid knives from him.
A knife-sharpening business owner told Guardian Australia recited a conversation he had with Cauchi: “I just do a bit of dabbling in the backyard with the knives and I use them every day.”
“His expressions, he was just very vague, I suppose you could say.
“No real personality about him, just weird.
“I heard he leaves one-star reviews on a lot of people’s pages all the time, so just that sort of person.”
What did Joel Cauchi do at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre?
Cauchi attacked shoppers on Saturday afternoon on April 13, 2024 at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre.
He stabbed various people with a knife, killing six shoppers.
How many people did Joel Cauchi attack at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre?
Cauchi attacked at least eighteen people, from which twelve were taken to hospital and six were killed.
Three people remain in a critical condition, as of Sunday, April 14, 2023.
The eight others are stable and one woman has already been discharged from hospital.
Who did Joel Cauchi kill at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre?
Cauchi stabbed five women and one man to death.
The victims are:
- Faraz Tahir, 30, a refugee who started working as a security guard in the shopping centre on the day of the attack
- Dr. Ashlee Good, 38, a mum whose nine-month-old baby was also stabbed
- Dawn Singleton, 25, an e-commerce assistant and daughter of businessman John Singleton,
- Jade Young, 47, an architect and mother-of-two
- Pikria Darchia, 55, a local artist
What happened to Joel Cauchi?
Cauchi was shot dead by senior police officer Inspector Amy Scott after he refused to drop his weapon and tried to attack the attending police officer.
Inspector Scott was nearby when reports of multiple stabbings were reported.
She fired shots at Cauchi when he turned on her and raised a knife.
According to witnesses, Scott was then seen performing CPR on the victims of the knife attack and Cauchi, while she waited for backup to arrive and help her.
Cauchi’s family identified their son to Queensland Police after seeing the news reports of the attack on TV and recognizing him as the attacker.
The family shared in a statement that they were “absolutely devastated by the traumatic events”.
They continued: “Joel’s actions were truly horrific, and we are still trying to comprehend what has happened.
“He has battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.”
The family said they had “no issues with the police officer who shot our son as she was only doing her job to protect others and we hope she is coping alright”.
Anthony Cooke, New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner said on Sunday, April 14, 2024 about the ongoing investigation:”As I had said last night, there is still to this point nothing that we have, no information we have received, no evidence we have recovered, no intelligence that we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation, ideology or otherwise.
“We know that the offender in the matter suffers from mental health.
“We are continuing to work through the profiling of the offender but very clearly to us at this stage it would appear that this is related to the mental health of the individual involved.”
“This was a very broad incident.
“There’s a lot of footage already out in the media depicting some of what has occurred.
“So people would understand this is a large crime scene.
“We need to deal with each and every aspect of that crime scene.”
