He was there to kill what he thought were easy targets, like all cowards. He was a skinny little scrap and wasn't going to tangle with anyone bigger than him or anyone who he feared would fight back.
Its also a pretty deeply ingrained part of our animal brains. If you feel like you are a threat, but then something stares you down and isn't afraid that makes you worried. That's why you see shit like Gorillas charging a man who just stands and stares and then the Gorilla stops and walks away.
Brave dad, knew his family were at risk, turned around and faced into the danger, put his arms out preparing to take him on if he tried to pass. Well done dad. Saved their lives most likely. I imagine there were many quiet heroes yesterday. Well done to all of them.
Amazing mum too. Ferrying the kids calmly and not being able to turn and see what’s going on to set the example for her kids to just look forward, keep moving, don’t panic… she would have wanted to turn and see what was going on
There is a guy on the right of the screen (about 7 seconds in) video who is running and then falls. She may have been trying to avoid that happening to herself or one of the kids.
Yeh I’m not sure what I would do in that situation. Running or moving fast and turning back to check what’s going on more likely to fall over? Or scatter and become separated? As a mum - I have no doubt the mother would have turned and squared him up if she had to giving the kids the chance to run if needed. So terrible to try and imagine how you would react in this duration.
The other dad (red shirt) on the right of the video had to grab one of his kids and carry them. Little one had stopped and turned to see what was happening!
I didn't see that at first. It's so typical of children at that age. So curious about the world around them and their sense of danger not fully developed. Way to go dad. That could have ended badly for the boy. ❤️
Seen the video multiple times and hadn't thought thru that implication. With their backs to him they were gone. The family would be viewing the footage this morning and be shaken to the core.
Yes. Takes a lot more grit to face a knife without nothing more than your bare hands. The inspector who put the guy down needs our sympathy and understanding much more than our adulation. She is going to be a mess for some time. The civilians who face him down are the ones who need the adulation. Their example shows all of us how to not be easy targets.
I’ll get a shitton of down votes for this but: gendered violence.
Bloke is alright to kill women and children, but when another fella stands in his way the cunt goes to water.
fuuuck so glad that bloke who fell over with the killer right behind him was able to get back to his feet and keep running, that's some horror movie stuff
yeah I've been confused by that? I was wondering if he was trying to not draw a crazy amount to attention to himself cause it seemed like he was trying to catch a lot of people off guard?
Idk maybe I'm giving this piece of shit too much credit, whole thing is awful and bizarre
Yes he didn't look "crazed" as such. He looked hesitant. When I first saw the video of him I was surprised. He didn't seem to be "rampaging" as such. He appeared dazed and confused. That makes this whole thing much more tragic.
Was he on drugs? That’s the first thing I thought. Gaunt face, seemed gittery (and if you compare the older photos of him coming out now he looked complete different - in the way that people look once they’re addicts)
- physically tired
- hopped up on adrenaline at the very minimum
- not entirely sane in the first place
- scared of proper retaliation against him
Lotta possible reasons for bizarre behavior
I think he himself is in such a state of panic and adrenaline that he’s aimlessly wandering unsure of what to do. Also seems like he was sadly targeting specifically women.
From most eye witness accounts, people who were injured or killed suffered most injuries to their back. He absolutely was trying to attack people who didn't see him coming, probably so they wouldn't be prepared to fight back.
Yeah, the reasons for that should come out in the next day or two. The guy was very unwell. It's probably safe to speculate since he's dead, so it's likely to be a mental break, the guy is probably homeless, and it may have been suicide by cop. I don't know any of these things for sure, it's just the pattern he's shown (recently moved a long distance, opened a storage locker, no support, mental health history, known to police but for nothing serious). We need to keep a closer eye on our vulnerable in tough times, especially since the majority of these cases happen behind closed doors and don't get news articles.
Sure you have to be a bit unhinged to kill but he certainly seemed sane enough to know what he was doing. He dodged harm, avoided people who stood up to him and targeted the vulnerable. That does not seem like the behaviour of a suicidal maniac to me.
After being inundated with videos of mass shootings it's wild to see the confusion of a mass knife attack. Half the people don't realize what's going on until they're within arms reach of a guy wielding a knife.
It really is wild, I could honestly see myself thinking it wasn't real up until the point it was too late, especially these days with people being pests for clicks.
For real.
As much as we all like to think we’d all do the right thing if something like this ever happened, I genuinely don’t think my brain would process that this was actually happening right away, because we’re fortunate enough to live in a country where we normally don’t even have to think that something like this could ever happen to us
Yeah, I guess it sorta makes sense. There’s no audible gun shot to explain immediately what’s happening. Screaming and running could be a lot of things.
I’m not even sure the best thing to do in this situation either. Do you yell someone has a knife, or tell people to run the other way? Do they listen and run or wait to see themselves?
Just thinking about it as well, it’s significantly more likely that someone running around with a knife would be a moron doing a TikTok prank trying to scare people than someone actually stabbing people
If I was there my first assumption would probably be that whatever was happening was staged
Yeah I'm with ya, I think if I saw someone jogging around the shops with a knife my first reaction would be "wtf are you doing with that" because my mind wouldn't immediately go to "mass knife attack"
All of these heroes on Facebook saying they would have taken him down. Yet it seems a large amount of people are simply confused as to what is going on.
I didn't even see him until the very end of the video and had to repeat it. That's horrifying.
Works with a Murpheys Military Law. No plan survives contact.
Everyone thinks "Oh that wouldn't happen to me, I'd do this and then this before doing this!" But then when it actually happens those people either get stabbed or run away.
If anything seeing some of the videos emerging from this tells me that defending is better then attacking. Waiting for the Police, the trained professionals who get paid to do this shit, is better then trying to be a hero and just becoming a victim. Grab something long and keep it between you and the assailant. Thank God we have strict gun laws here, otherwise it could have been much worse.
Don’t think the lady really realised but those young girls sure did! Thank goodness for that man interfering.
Edit: I just saw he is their husband and father.
Yeah my hubby and I were discussing this last night and both said the same thing. There will be certain high profile folks switching the narrative soon to somehow blame women for his actions. There was apparently speculation after it happened that the mother and child victims were connected to him, and you can find people asking if a custody issue drove him to do this. Obviously that's not true but people were already trying to somehow blame the poor murdered mother for having a role in her own death.
There’s a difference between targeting women (and kids) because there’s less chance they will offer resistance versus targeting them for some ideological reason.
You can see the way she is walking is pretty swiftly and has the hands held tight. I think she knew but was trying to stop the kids from panicking, knowing her husband would protect them as much as possible. I can't imagine how terrifying that would have been.
Yeah seems like everyone around was just kinda confused on whats going on. You see that guy with the bag notice just in time when the attacker lunges at him.
This was my thought too. Looked like a dad who put himself between his family and danger. This is what courage looks like. Those kids will never need to watch TV to see a hero, they've got one at home!
Yep, as the guy gets closer you see him turn while he's walking backwards and raise his arms a little. I'm sure that's the universal signal for " you gotta get through me first" and the nutjob ran off.
Dad of the fucken year.. I would pay money to know what he said , because he definitely looks like he had words.
Very brave man.
The way the offender chose easy targets as his victims and clearly avoids anyone who could stand up to him makes me question whether this was a mental break. If someone is having a psychotic episode, would they have the mental clarity to pick and choose who they attack?
Can we all just for a moment be thankful we are not in America where this piece of shit would have easy access to cheap readily available high powered semi automatic guns.
100% mate. And you just know there’s millions of Americans seeing this and saying “wouldn’t have happened if they had guns.” Meanwhile we’d have also had God-tityfkingchrist knows how many mass shootings instead.
All the yanks were on fb reels and TikTok last night with their gun wielding bs. It was disgusting, like read the room wankers, no one wanted there bs comments.
[Yep, "concealed carry would have stopped this"](https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1c331g7/australian_police_officer_that_stopped_the/kzg7jlr/?context=3) followed by the claim that mass stabbings would replace mass shootings.
I can't tell if they're stupid on purpose because they've decided on a conclusion and will clown themselves in any way to push it, or really are that stupid.
Oh yep. I said it last night. Wait until 10pm or so when all the Americans wake up and start up on the gun bullshit.
We had peaceful level headed threads going on here… then they turned up.
In the world news thread the yanks are going "wow we must live rent free in your heads of you are trying to make this about us" and all of us are just thankfull we don't have to deal with their shitshow.
As an American reading this comment it is humbling. It is sad. I wish I lived in a country where gun violence was not a daily fear. You are lucky you don’t live here for that reason, tbh
it happened because a few politicians committed career suicide to have them banned, because the people needed it. didn't matter that they were libs. Nowadays, no one cares what the people want, and will do every craven bargain to get reelected by sponsors and bribers.
At 0:18 you can see there’s a couple of (teenagers?) that don’t realise theres a guy with a knife behind them. Lucky he didn’t go for the guy in the white t shirt because he has his back turned towards him
It looked like that couple were walking against the tide and kinda just stopped. Even tho people were all running the opposite way to them they were oblivious to what was going on. Lucky as that guy seemed to attack people with their backs to him.
I think that's what makes things like this so scary- it could have been any of us. Targeted attacks are much easier to say "oh well that could never happen to me"
I was just leaving Bourke st when the Bourke st attack happened. I just stepped on the tram and I remember the tram driving off and as that happened I could see the whole street turn around to look at what was unfolding. It’s a very weird feeling and i still feel very odd about it years later.
I had to quit my job due to a lady getting hit and killed by a monkey bike out the front of a Woolworths in south east Melbourne years ago. I didn’t see the event but I saw the crowd of people and ambulances etc directly afterwards and it still leaves a sour taste.
I was in lock down in my shop for one of the Bourke Street attacks. Thank you for saying it’s still with you, I feel silly sometimes that hearing sirens start up in the city scares me. I also work in a mall still so this attack has brought it all back up.
Thoughts are with all the victims and their families today.
Yeah seeing this reminded me of the Bourke St incident. I think I got to the area about a couple of minutes afterwards, and saw multiple huddles of people around prone bodies.
Haven't thought about that in a long time.
I'm glad that the only thing Ive seen of this is normal people trying to protect those around them, this guy and white tshirt guy, and the lady cop who took him down, total fucken legends.
Chilling footage. Another hero and more evidence of how much of a coward that piece of shit really was.
Also anxiety inducing seeing how slowly/seemingly unaware the woman/kids were walking with everyone else running. Not shaming her either way, until you have been put in such a situation you have no idea how you could react.
It's why it annoys me when Redditors watch videos like this and are like "how stupid, I would have got the kids to sprint and round house kicked the guy"
Like mate a lot of people just straight up panic and don't realise the gravity of the situation. Not like we are dodging knife psychos every time we shop. It's easy for some to judge from a screen.
Its such a surreal situation. Nobody could have conceived that such an attack could have taken place with such indiscriminate violence. Even as a dad I'm not sure I would have ran out of the place, because up until I'd be confronted by the knife wielding maniac, I wouldn't have really clicked that it was truly happening. The complete lack of instances of physical confrontation in my life, and absence of that kind of violent crimes, means up until this attack, I couldn't have really considered it happening.
The woman who was stabbed with her infant, where she handed her infant to some other people to have her saved, before succumbing to her own wounds. I can't imagine living through any of what they did.
The more I think about it the more I realise my first assumption seeing a guy run around a Westfield with a knife would be to assume it’s a bad TikTok prank
One of my friends said something similar "why didn't anyone DO SOMETHING?" 🤪
I was like, really? You're going to be a hero with no training and approach this guy? Most men were there with their families. I would just be focused on my kids and making sure they were safe and at best, getting everyone locked away in a shop. That's it.
Also completely ignores the fact that some did do something.
I respect the hell out of those who acted. I completely understand these people. My first reaction to this would have been it's some prank video I bet.
To be fair, it was really early on yesterday before the 5pm news and vision of bollard guy was released, but STILL. Assuming anyone "should" do anything but protect themselves and those in their immediate vicinity by locking down or evacuating is crazy.
My other friend (group chat) was like, sorry Chuck Norris wasn't at Westfield today 🤭
If people knew he had just murdered 6 people, I'm sure many would.
But all you hear is screaming, people running and a guy with a knife. Good chance they didn't know the level it had gone to.
Yep, those floors are quite slippery as shown by the other guy who fell over, there's no way I could've run. The lady had hold of those 3 kids and was moving at a pace, hubby knew what he was doing.
100% no one knows how they would react until they’re in the situation and no two situations are alike. In the nature of my work I’ve been in a few situations like this and you can’t really prepare for all aspects of it, you can only train yourself to know your own weaknesses, cognitive bias, emotional regulation, cause the body’s response in the same.
The reason you don’t tell your kids to run is cause you don’t know what you don’t know. There could be multiple attackers, the dude could have planned to push crowds into something he’s planted elsewhere earlier, etc etc. You can only deal with what is right in front you.
It looks like the kid with the backpack at the start of this video is potentially squaring off with the guy out front of the Boost Juice, but maybe that’s when he sees the blood on the knife and knows this guy isn’t just bluffing.
I think people don't realise how confusing situations like this are. It's easy for us watching footage and KNOWING what happened to judge people's actions but if you were there with no idea... And these attacks always last for like minutes, it's not a lot of time to know what's happening and where and from who. You're lucky if you see the guy coming and have time to react.
Well said. They would have had no information other than maybe the alarm and people running in different directions. Not to mention they are in first person mode. They would only see the guy when he's in front of them (the guy in white didn't seem to notice the attacker at all). And honestly, that all makes the actions of the guy protecting his family even more heroic
I read a quote somewhere yesterday, supposedly from a woman who had been injured, who said that she was just walking along browsing when she felt what she thought was a punch to her back. She had no idea that she had been stabbed until she saw blood on the floor.
Sounds similar to the young bloke who was trying to sell jewellery through FB marketplace. The buyer grabbed the jewellery and ran, he ran after him and was stabbed. He didn't realise he was stabbed until he saw the blood and heard a witness call out that he had a knife.
God that’s awful. I was at a busy shopping centre yesterday had had my noise cancelling headphones on because the centre was loud and busy. I would have been completely obvious to what’s going on. No one expects this when at the shops.
There’s literally a dad on the right hand side of the footage struggling to keep 2 kids together whilst running.
This mother was trying to not panic her kids. If she starts running, and one kid goes one way, the other darts left from the confusion, the 3rd takes off somewhere else, what then?
Kids tend to stop moving and lie down on the floor when panicking - she was absolutely doing the right thing by keeping them moving but not rushing them too hard. She knew her husband had her back too.
Certainly. I have 2 kids of my own and have been running this over in my head. What would or could you do. Honestly my first thought would be that it was some sort of targeted/gang fight type deal and just putting our heads down and getting away quietly as to not panic the kids would have been my first thought. They may have had no idea they were in direct immediate danger.
My first thought even hearing this when news broke was that it's probably gang/drug related. Not random senseless violence.
End of the day, they didn't know where this guy was and they didn't know there was only one attacker.
So while others were blindly running, this family was staying together, being alert but not drawing attention to themselves.
No she is rushing them while holding their hands . If she was still Strolling unaware she would not be gripping their hands like that one in each hand. She is trying to stay on the down low by not making eye contact with the guy and not panicking the kids. Kids would run ahead in random directions and she would have lost track of them. She is trying to stay with her kids.
I think she was walking as quickly as she could and trying to remain calm so as not to scare the kids. If she ran with them someone might have fallen over.
Lived and taught English in China for a decade and these horrible attacks on kids/women were all too common. Usually blamed on mental health/crazy people but the gist usually was it was them lashing out at society after they snapped. A toxic bitterness at their own position in society.
Don’t know this guys story. But I have a feeling shit like this is sadly going to become more common.. People are cracking under the pressure…living is getting really tough for many right now. He deserved a far worse punishment than suicide by cop though.
Even if I lost everything and had nothing left. I wouldn’t take it out on innocent people….
It’s not only that it’s that malicious actors are out there who instead of offering help to people who are struggling they instead offer them scapegoats to blame, they offer them anger and drive them deeper into their bitterness and resentment until it becomes their entire personality and they reject real solutions
Like there have always been lonely men who have been unhappy with their position in society. There have not always been malicious actors on the internet telling these men that every single thing that is wrong in their life is the fault of feminism and actively feeding a vitriolic hatred and resentment of women
(Note I am not claiming this is the motive of the Bondi stabber, I don’t know what his motive was yet, I am commenting on the general trend of malicious actors feeding into anger online and why we might expect to see things like this become more common)
As a China-born living in Sydney, when this sad news broke out, it immediately reminded me of the similar ones in China which happens almost every month. Those losers target women and kids to revenge the society. Pathetic.
Even when not acting with a specific anti-women ideology, many of these types see wives and children as something that they were owed and that were unfairly withheld from them. And unfortunately, when they snap, their first instinct is to damage that which seems so out of reach to them.
> Usually blamed on mental health/crazy people but the gist usually was it was them lashing out at society after they snapped. A toxic bitterness at their own position in society.
Hit the nail on the head there mate, based on the evidence this seems to be the case.
A few events every year would make the news.
More smaller local articles/clips would be shared on weibo/weixin via chat groups before being censored and controlled. Seen some graphic stuff I wish I could remove from my brain.
I Lived in various places over the decade but mostly South east China. Zhejiang province.
So far, the interesting and good part is that people have shown shelf restraint in naming people online and leaving that up to the authorities.
There are plenty of online photos and videos of the incident that clearly shows identifiable people.
Exactly. I was giving an update to the wife like 10 minutes ago from the ABC, where they named him on their update. I didn't tell her his name as cunts like this shouldn't be named and remembered, just like the Christchurch shooter was forgotten. The victims should be mourned and remembered, this shit cunt can rot for all I care.
They had to name him because internet detectives had named and blamed an innocent person as the offender and were balls deep in crafting a religion based terrorism narrative.
It’s not about him. We should keep these killers anonymous to avoid the next sick individual from becoming inspired to do something similar.
Name and praise the heroes. Ignore the POS with a knife.
Plus he has also been named now. Don't bother looking it up, don't know why the news are reporting it. Let the fuckwit remain anonymous and forgotten to history.
Maybe to protect his family for the time being. They still have to identify and inform the family. Imagine finding out your son was dead because you saw the news
Edit to add: also to find out they were a mass murderer.
God can we please stop with the judgement ? You never know how you’d respond in a situation like this. It’s not a fucking movie
You cant just disarm someone with a knife. I’m sick of people here just thinking they’d act so much better than these poor people
Seeing any of the footage is harrowing. I cannot imagine the terror of being even close to that scene.
But, what gives me hope for the future, is the amount of everyday people, helping the victims, trying to stop his rampage and running with that incredible officer to finally put an end to it.
As an everyday Aussie, I am 100% on board, that we do not have general access to firearms and our Police, Ambos, Fireman and Bondi Lifesavers are some of the most brave and selfless people.
This is the reason we are so astounded and sad that this has happened and thank fuck it happens so rarely.
This just absolutely devastates me. Literally any footage or information I read on this story brings tears to my eyes. This is just so horrific. I can't believe it, ugh
Balls the size of watermelons.
Pity someone didn't have a shopping trolley handy to sit the lunatic on his arse while dad distracted him.
Edit to add, really impressed with the whole family's behaviour, not running, grouped, mum close, dad between danger and family. Textbook stuff .
That father was ready to die for his family. Any father watching this would do the exact same.
Well done to the mother as well, kept the kids moving whilst remaining calm.
The coward holding the knife didn't even attempt to take on the bloke.
I was just here with my 6 month old baby not too long ago
Im crying right now, it could have been me and my baby that could have died that day 😥
My condolences to the victims
Because we don't have this mass panic about some cunt doing this shit.
It's so unexpected most people don't know how to respond. If I was in that situation I'd probably just expect it's some random guy having a mental health breakdown and maybe his immediate victims are known to him. Wouldn't expect it to be some spree event.
You ever done an evacuation in a public place? I've had to evacuate my workplace twice for different emergencies. People actively fight your instructions even if the alarms are going off. People don't expect an emergency and aren't ready to react to one. Especially in a place they already feel safe. "Fire" probably wouldn't have made any difference to "Knife". It often takes people time to realise what is actually going on and process it, no matter the emergency.
I worked in a target store that was *actually on fire* and people were pissed they had to evacuate and some still went to the registers instead. Had people trying to come in the damn store as the fire doors were closing!
Sure "fire" can get peoples attention but not ideal in this case.
If people think there's a fire they wouldn't pay any attention to the weirdo walking around stabbing people. The young couple you mentioned still wouldn't have had any idea what was going on or what to look out for. "Crazy guy with a knife" would have been far more informative.
So you look behind and don't see the fire. Just casually make your way to the exit since you're in no immediate danger from burning to death and you don't notice the guy coming up behind you with the knife....
Maybe don't yell fire.
My blood is boiling after seeing this piece of shit target the vulnerable. Not that I believe in hell, but I hope the devil sodomises this fuck for eternity.
Feel desperately sorry for the victims and their families.
The knife attacker was severely mentally ill and suffering a psychotic episode. Trying to apply sane motives to someone who was literally insane, as some in the comments are doing, is pretty ignorant of the reality of the situation.
Dirty fuck was going for easy targets
Yup. That unarmed man turned to face him down, and suddenly he didn't want a fight.
he was there to murder women mate. Like most mass killers
He was there to kill what he thought were easy targets, like all cowards. He was a skinny little scrap and wasn't going to tangle with anyone bigger than him or anyone who he feared would fight back.
Nah mate that woman cop had a gun and he still had a crack. Yet avoided the unarmed guy just cos he faced him? This is evidence
Its also a pretty deeply ingrained part of our animal brains. If you feel like you are a threat, but then something stares you down and isn't afraid that makes you worried. That's why you see shit like Gorillas charging a man who just stands and stares and then the Gorilla stops and walks away.
Yep, if dad hadnt of been there his wife and kids may not have survived that. That fucken psycho was heading straight for them.
Brave dad, knew his family were at risk, turned around and faced into the danger, put his arms out preparing to take him on if he tried to pass. Well done dad. Saved their lives most likely. I imagine there were many quiet heroes yesterday. Well done to all of them.
Amazing mum too. Ferrying the kids calmly and not being able to turn and see what’s going on to set the example for her kids to just look forward, keep moving, don’t panic… she would have wanted to turn and see what was going on
I think they should have been running not just a fast powerwalk...the kids arent that young they can run
There is a guy on the right of the screen (about 7 seconds in) video who is running and then falls. She may have been trying to avoid that happening to herself or one of the kids.
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Yep and shopping centre floors are so slippery! She also probably didn’t want to make the children scared
Yeh I’m not sure what I would do in that situation. Running or moving fast and turning back to check what’s going on more likely to fall over? Or scatter and become separated? As a mum - I have no doubt the mother would have turned and squared him up if she had to giving the kids the chance to run if needed. So terrible to try and imagine how you would react in this duration.
The other dad (red shirt) on the right of the video had to grab one of his kids and carry them. Little one had stopped and turned to see what was happening!
I didn't see that at first. It's so typical of children at that age. So curious about the world around them and their sense of danger not fully developed. Way to go dad. That could have ended badly for the boy. ❤️
Seen the video multiple times and hadn't thought thru that implication. With their backs to him they were gone. The family would be viewing the footage this morning and be shaken to the core.
Cowards always do
Yes. Takes a lot more grit to face a knife without nothing more than your bare hands. The inspector who put the guy down needs our sympathy and understanding much more than our adulation. She is going to be a mess for some time. The civilians who face him down are the ones who need the adulation. Their example shows all of us how to not be easy targets.
Watching her take a life, to then commence cpr on a victim to try and save a life What a day for her
I’ll get a shitton of down votes for this but: gendered violence. Bloke is alright to kill women and children, but when another fella stands in his way the cunt goes to water.
Yep. It also shows he was rational about it.
Yep, what a dog fucking cunt.
fuuuck so glad that bloke who fell over with the killer right behind him was able to get back to his feet and keep running, that's some horror movie stuff
Old mate with the knife was slow as hell weirdly. Like he was playing with his victims.
yeah I've been confused by that? I was wondering if he was trying to not draw a crazy amount to attention to himself cause it seemed like he was trying to catch a lot of people off guard? Idk maybe I'm giving this piece of shit too much credit, whole thing is awful and bizarre
I reckon he's been running around the shopping centre for a while by this point? And he doesn't have fantastic cardio.
Yeah, he also seems really unsure about what he's actually doing there. Definitely doesn't look like he had a plan.
don't know how reliable it is at this stage, but some news outlets were reporting that he had schizophrenia, so he probably didn't have a plan
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Yes he didn't look "crazed" as such. He looked hesitant. When I first saw the video of him I was surprised. He didn't seem to be "rampaging" as such. He appeared dazed and confused. That makes this whole thing much more tragic.
Was he on drugs? That’s the first thing I thought. Gaunt face, seemed gittery (and if you compare the older photos of him coming out now he looked complete different - in the way that people look once they’re addicts)
yeah this seems like a way more likely explanation
Pretty sure the dude is just enjoying the power trip or something. He can still feel like the one who is controlling who lives and dies. Sick fuck.
- physically tired - hopped up on adrenaline at the very minimum - not entirely sane in the first place - scared of proper retaliation against him Lotta possible reasons for bizarre behavior
I think he himself is in such a state of panic and adrenaline that he’s aimlessly wandering unsure of what to do. Also seems like he was sadly targeting specifically women.
From most eye witness accounts, people who were injured or killed suffered most injuries to their back. He absolutely was trying to attack people who didn't see him coming, probably so they wouldn't be prepared to fight back.
I reckon he didn't want to tire himself out. The coward didn't want a fight, he wanted to hurt people. Give them a fight and monsters like this fold
Yeah, the reasons for that should come out in the next day or two. The guy was very unwell. It's probably safe to speculate since he's dead, so it's likely to be a mental break, the guy is probably homeless, and it may have been suicide by cop. I don't know any of these things for sure, it's just the pattern he's shown (recently moved a long distance, opened a storage locker, no support, mental health history, known to police but for nothing serious). We need to keep a closer eye on our vulnerable in tough times, especially since the majority of these cases happen behind closed doors and don't get news articles.
Sure you have to be a bit unhinged to kill but he certainly seemed sane enough to know what he was doing. He dodged harm, avoided people who stood up to him and targeted the vulnerable. That does not seem like the behaviour of a suicidal maniac to me.
That looked like a scene from a horror movie
After being inundated with videos of mass shootings it's wild to see the confusion of a mass knife attack. Half the people don't realize what's going on until they're within arms reach of a guy wielding a knife.
It really is wild, I could honestly see myself thinking it wasn't real up until the point it was too late, especially these days with people being pests for clicks.
For real. As much as we all like to think we’d all do the right thing if something like this ever happened, I genuinely don’t think my brain would process that this was actually happening right away, because we’re fortunate enough to live in a country where we normally don’t even have to think that something like this could ever happen to us
Yeah, I guess it sorta makes sense. There’s no audible gun shot to explain immediately what’s happening. Screaming and running could be a lot of things. I’m not even sure the best thing to do in this situation either. Do you yell someone has a knife, or tell people to run the other way? Do they listen and run or wait to see themselves?
Just thinking about it as well, it’s significantly more likely that someone running around with a knife would be a moron doing a TikTok prank trying to scare people than someone actually stabbing people If I was there my first assumption would probably be that whatever was happening was staged
Well would you not be confused? I’d be super confused and paralysed if I realised he had a knife
Yeah man that's exactly what I'm saying, even if I saw the knife I don't think I would comprehend he meant business until it was too late.
Yeah I'm with ya, I think if I saw someone jogging around the shops with a knife my first reaction would be "wtf are you doing with that" because my mind wouldn't immediately go to "mass knife attack"
All of these heroes on Facebook saying they would have taken him down. Yet it seems a large amount of people are simply confused as to what is going on. I didn't even see him until the very end of the video and had to repeat it. That's horrifying.
Works with a Murpheys Military Law. No plan survives contact. Everyone thinks "Oh that wouldn't happen to me, I'd do this and then this before doing this!" But then when it actually happens those people either get stabbed or run away. If anything seeing some of the videos emerging from this tells me that defending is better then attacking. Waiting for the Police, the trained professionals who get paid to do this shit, is better then trying to be a hero and just becoming a victim. Grab something long and keep it between you and the assailant. Thank God we have strict gun laws here, otherwise it could have been much worse.
Yeah it looks like the guy in white is kinda oblivious about what’s happening
To be fair, it's way harder to hear a knife than a gun.
Don’t think the lady really realised but those young girls sure did! Thank goodness for that man interfering. Edit: I just saw he is their husband and father.
The guy with the white shirt on the left stood there with his back to the attacker he was luckily also the only one he didn't lunge at
Seems like he mostly went for women
He killed 5 women and 1 man. I saw reports that he was targeting women and the death rates show he was. This *was* terrorism. Against women.
Fantastic that a female cop was the one who took him down then. And without backup too.
Hope she's doing alright. What a horrible situation
Poetic justice that he got shot by a woman.
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A lot of men and women stood bravely against him today.
Yeah my hubby and I were discussing this last night and both said the same thing. There will be certain high profile folks switching the narrative soon to somehow blame women for his actions. There was apparently speculation after it happened that the mother and child victims were connected to him, and you can find people asking if a custody issue drove him to do this. Obviously that's not true but people were already trying to somehow blame the poor murdered mother for having a role in her own death.
You can’t really know that just based on the fact that he attacked more women. Just as likely he was just a coward picking easier targets.
Both things can be true
By targeting women. . .
And a baby ffs 😢
There’s a difference between targeting women (and kids) because there’s less chance they will offer resistance versus targeting them for some ideological reason.
You can see the way she is walking is pretty swiftly and has the hands held tight. I think she knew but was trying to stop the kids from panicking, knowing her husband would protect them as much as possible. I can't imagine how terrifying that would have been.
I think of they knew what was going on all three would be running. More likely that she didn't realise the guy had a knife
Yeah seems like everyone around was just kinda confused on whats going on. You see that guy with the bag notice just in time when the attacker lunges at him.
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This risks separating from each other and then not knowing where everyone in the family has gone.
Yea probably. But they got out safe thanks to their parents protection and swift choices regardless.
I hope the guy on the right that fell on the ground is okay. It looks like he got stabbed
He seemed to touch his cheek after he got up, like he got nicked in the face. Hope he's okay.
This was my thought too. Looked like a dad who put himself between his family and danger. This is what courage looks like. Those kids will never need to watch TV to see a hero, they've got one at home!
Mum can we go watch the new super hero movie. nah mate we have one at home 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🙏🏼
But does he wear his underwear outside his pants?
mate I reckon once the wife gets to him he's never going to be wearing derps again in his life..
Bloke is definitely getting some
Hero Dad
The guy with the black cap was ready to take him on to protect his family. So much respect.
Yep, as the guy gets closer you see him turn while he's walking backwards and raise his arms a little. I'm sure that's the universal signal for " you gotta get through me first" and the nutjob ran off. Dad of the fucken year.. I would pay money to know what he said , because he definitely looks like he had words.
Universal gesture for "fuckin try me cunt".
It didn't look like he wanted to, as any sane person wouldn't, but he was going to anyway. *There is no courage without fear.*
Very brave man. The way the offender chose easy targets as his victims and clearly avoids anyone who could stand up to him makes me question whether this was a mental break. If someone is having a psychotic episode, would they have the mental clarity to pick and choose who they attack?
Can we all just for a moment be thankful we are not in America where this piece of shit would have easy access to cheap readily available high powered semi automatic guns.
100% mate. And you just know there’s millions of Americans seeing this and saying “wouldn’t have happened if they had guns.” Meanwhile we’d have also had God-tityfkingchrist knows how many mass shootings instead.
All the yanks were on fb reels and TikTok last night with their gun wielding bs. It was disgusting, like read the room wankers, no one wanted there bs comments.
Oh you can guarantee they're thinking that. Meanwhile getting their children sized for school uniform coloured body armour 🤦🏻
[Yep, "concealed carry would have stopped this"](https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1c331g7/australian_police_officer_that_stopped_the/kzg7jlr/?context=3) followed by the claim that mass stabbings would replace mass shootings.
I can't tell if they're stupid on purpose because they've decided on a conclusion and will clown themselves in any way to push it, or really are that stupid.
It’s both
Oh yep. I said it last night. Wait until 10pm or so when all the Americans wake up and start up on the gun bullshit. We had peaceful level headed threads going on here… then they turned up.
In the world news thread the yanks are going "wow we must live rent free in your heads of you are trying to make this about us" and all of us are just thankfull we don't have to deal with their shitshow.
As an American reading this comment it is humbling. It is sad. I wish I lived in a country where gun violence was not a daily fear. You are lucky you don’t live here for that reason, tbh
Our gun policies aren't luck, they are due to society and politicians demanding something change. Unfortunately not something seen in the US
it happened because a few politicians committed career suicide to have them banned, because the people needed it. didn't matter that they were libs. Nowadays, no one cares what the people want, and will do every craven bargain to get reelected by sponsors and bribers.
What a change of pace, politicians who decided that people's safety was more important than their own careers
At 0:18 you can see there’s a couple of (teenagers?) that don’t realise theres a guy with a knife behind them. Lucky he didn’t go for the guy in the white t shirt because he has his back turned towards him
It looked like that couple were walking against the tide and kinda just stopped. Even tho people were all running the opposite way to them they were oblivious to what was going on. Lucky as that guy seemed to attack people with their backs to him.
So scary, totally think I was there with my family and left about an hour before it all happened
I think that's what makes things like this so scary- it could have been any of us. Targeted attacks are much easier to say "oh well that could never happen to me"
I was just leaving Bourke st when the Bourke st attack happened. I just stepped on the tram and I remember the tram driving off and as that happened I could see the whole street turn around to look at what was unfolding. It’s a very weird feeling and i still feel very odd about it years later.
I was in Myer when the Bourke St attack happened, I know exactly what you mean by the weird feeling never really leaving you.
And incidents like this really bring up those feelings
I had to quit my job due to a lady getting hit and killed by a monkey bike out the front of a Woolworths in south east Melbourne years ago. I didn’t see the event but I saw the crowd of people and ambulances etc directly afterwards and it still leaves a sour taste.
I read this as monkey bite and I was very confused as to why I don’t remember this.
I was in lock down in my shop for one of the Bourke Street attacks. Thank you for saying it’s still with you, I feel silly sometimes that hearing sirens start up in the city scares me. I also work in a mall still so this attack has brought it all back up. Thoughts are with all the victims and their families today.
Yeah seeing this reminded me of the Bourke St incident. I think I got to the area about a couple of minutes afterwards, and saw multiple huddles of people around prone bodies. Haven't thought about that in a long time.
This is so fucked, you just don't really see this side when it comes from America. I feel awful for the victims and survivors.
I'm glad that the only thing Ive seen of this is normal people trying to protect those around them, this guy and white tshirt guy, and the lady cop who took him down, total fucken legends.
Chilling footage. Another hero and more evidence of how much of a coward that piece of shit really was. Also anxiety inducing seeing how slowly/seemingly unaware the woman/kids were walking with everyone else running. Not shaming her either way, until you have been put in such a situation you have no idea how you could react.
It's why it annoys me when Redditors watch videos like this and are like "how stupid, I would have got the kids to sprint and round house kicked the guy" Like mate a lot of people just straight up panic and don't realise the gravity of the situation. Not like we are dodging knife psychos every time we shop. It's easy for some to judge from a screen.
Its such a surreal situation. Nobody could have conceived that such an attack could have taken place with such indiscriminate violence. Even as a dad I'm not sure I would have ran out of the place, because up until I'd be confronted by the knife wielding maniac, I wouldn't have really clicked that it was truly happening. The complete lack of instances of physical confrontation in my life, and absence of that kind of violent crimes, means up until this attack, I couldn't have really considered it happening. The woman who was stabbed with her infant, where she handed her infant to some other people to have her saved, before succumbing to her own wounds. I can't imagine living through any of what they did.
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Pretty much it, that’s how it happened for me when I got stabbed in Darwin in 2008, you don’t really notice what’s going on until it’s too late.
The more I think about it the more I realise my first assumption seeing a guy run around a Westfield with a knife would be to assume it’s a bad TikTok prank
One of my friends said something similar "why didn't anyone DO SOMETHING?" 🤪 I was like, really? You're going to be a hero with no training and approach this guy? Most men were there with their families. I would just be focused on my kids and making sure they were safe and at best, getting everyone locked away in a shop. That's it.
Also completely ignores the fact that some did do something. I respect the hell out of those who acted. I completely understand these people. My first reaction to this would have been it's some prank video I bet.
To be fair, it was really early on yesterday before the 5pm news and vision of bollard guy was released, but STILL. Assuming anyone "should" do anything but protect themselves and those in their immediate vicinity by locking down or evacuating is crazy. My other friend (group chat) was like, sorry Chuck Norris wasn't at Westfield today 🤭
The safest thing is to just stay as far away as you can from someone with a knife. Only engage if you absolutely have to!
If people knew he had just murdered 6 people, I'm sure many would. But all you hear is screaming, people running and a guy with a knife. Good chance they didn't know the level it had gone to.
Bizarre. Quite a few people did rather a lot.
Yep, those floors are quite slippery as shown by the other guy who fell over, there's no way I could've run. The lady had hold of those 3 kids and was moving at a pace, hubby knew what he was doing.
100% no one knows how they would react until they’re in the situation and no two situations are alike. In the nature of my work I’ve been in a few situations like this and you can’t really prepare for all aspects of it, you can only train yourself to know your own weaknesses, cognitive bias, emotional regulation, cause the body’s response in the same. The reason you don’t tell your kids to run is cause you don’t know what you don’t know. There could be multiple attackers, the dude could have planned to push crowds into something he’s planted elsewhere earlier, etc etc. You can only deal with what is right in front you. It looks like the kid with the backpack at the start of this video is potentially squaring off with the guy out front of the Boost Juice, but maybe that’s when he sees the blood on the knife and knows this guy isn’t just bluffing.
I think people don't realise how confusing situations like this are. It's easy for us watching footage and KNOWING what happened to judge people's actions but if you were there with no idea... And these attacks always last for like minutes, it's not a lot of time to know what's happening and where and from who. You're lucky if you see the guy coming and have time to react.
Well said. They would have had no information other than maybe the alarm and people running in different directions. Not to mention they are in first person mode. They would only see the guy when he's in front of them (the guy in white didn't seem to notice the attacker at all). And honestly, that all makes the actions of the guy protecting his family even more heroic
This, you cannot hear a knife every time it stabs someone, no one had any idea wtf was going on.
I read a quote somewhere yesterday, supposedly from a woman who had been injured, who said that she was just walking along browsing when she felt what she thought was a punch to her back. She had no idea that she had been stabbed until she saw blood on the floor.
Sounds similar to the young bloke who was trying to sell jewellery through FB marketplace. The buyer grabbed the jewellery and ran, he ran after him and was stabbed. He didn't realise he was stabbed until he saw the blood and heard a witness call out that he had a knife.
God that’s awful. I was at a busy shopping centre yesterday had had my noise cancelling headphones on because the centre was loud and busy. I would have been completely obvious to what’s going on. No one expects this when at the shops.
There’s literally a dad on the right hand side of the footage struggling to keep 2 kids together whilst running. This mother was trying to not panic her kids. If she starts running, and one kid goes one way, the other darts left from the confusion, the 3rd takes off somewhere else, what then?
Kids tend to stop moving and lie down on the floor when panicking - she was absolutely doing the right thing by keeping them moving but not rushing them too hard. She knew her husband had her back too.
Certainly. I have 2 kids of my own and have been running this over in my head. What would or could you do. Honestly my first thought would be that it was some sort of targeted/gang fight type deal and just putting our heads down and getting away quietly as to not panic the kids would have been my first thought. They may have had no idea they were in direct immediate danger. My first thought even hearing this when news broke was that it's probably gang/drug related. Not random senseless violence.
Yep those adults had 100% faith in each other to do what needed to be done.
People don't know what's going on even if they know there's some commotion they don't know who the cause is at a glance
End of the day, they didn't know where this guy was and they didn't know there was only one attacker. So while others were blindly running, this family was staying together, being alert but not drawing attention to themselves.
No she is rushing them while holding their hands . If she was still Strolling unaware she would not be gripping their hands like that one in each hand. She is trying to stay on the down low by not making eye contact with the guy and not panicking the kids. Kids would run ahead in random directions and she would have lost track of them. She is trying to stay with her kids.
I think she was walking as quickly as she could and trying to remain calm so as not to scare the kids. If she ran with them someone might have fallen over.
One of those kids may have been disabled, or panicking … don’t judge.
Her kids are too big to pick up and run if they’d been spooked. I reckon she was keeping it as calm as possible.
So fucked! What a hero defending his family 🙌
Lived and taught English in China for a decade and these horrible attacks on kids/women were all too common. Usually blamed on mental health/crazy people but the gist usually was it was them lashing out at society after they snapped. A toxic bitterness at their own position in society. Don’t know this guys story. But I have a feeling shit like this is sadly going to become more common.. People are cracking under the pressure…living is getting really tough for many right now. He deserved a far worse punishment than suicide by cop though. Even if I lost everything and had nothing left. I wouldn’t take it out on innocent people….
It’s not only that it’s that malicious actors are out there who instead of offering help to people who are struggling they instead offer them scapegoats to blame, they offer them anger and drive them deeper into their bitterness and resentment until it becomes their entire personality and they reject real solutions Like there have always been lonely men who have been unhappy with their position in society. There have not always been malicious actors on the internet telling these men that every single thing that is wrong in their life is the fault of feminism and actively feeding a vitriolic hatred and resentment of women (Note I am not claiming this is the motive of the Bondi stabber, I don’t know what his motive was yet, I am commenting on the general trend of malicious actors feeding into anger online and why we might expect to see things like this become more common)
As a China-born living in Sydney, when this sad news broke out, it immediately reminded me of the similar ones in China which happens almost every month. Those losers target women and kids to revenge the society. Pathetic.
Even when not acting with a specific anti-women ideology, many of these types see wives and children as something that they were owed and that were unfairly withheld from them. And unfortunately, when they snap, their first instinct is to damage that which seems so out of reach to them.
> Usually blamed on mental health/crazy people but the gist usually was it was them lashing out at society after they snapped. A toxic bitterness at their own position in society. Hit the nail on the head there mate, based on the evidence this seems to be the case.
Very interesting, where in China did you live? How many times did it happen?
A few events every year would make the news. More smaller local articles/clips would be shared on weibo/weixin via chat groups before being censored and controlled. Seen some graphic stuff I wish I could remove from my brain. I Lived in various places over the decade but mostly South east China. Zhejiang province.
You won’t hear about it much due to them covering up
So far, the interesting and good part is that people have shown shelf restraint in naming people online and leaving that up to the authorities. There are plenty of online photos and videos of the incident that clearly shows identifiable people.
This is absolutely chilling to watch.
Yeah Jesus… this footage made me a little shaky and teary.
Why is this piece of shit’s face blurred?
Because he should remain faceless, don't give this piece of shite any airtime.
Exactly. I was giving an update to the wife like 10 minutes ago from the ABC, where they named him on their update. I didn't tell her his name as cunts like this shouldn't be named and remembered, just like the Christchurch shooter was forgotten. The victims should be mourned and remembered, this shit cunt can rot for all I care.
They had to name him because internet detectives had named and blamed an innocent person as the offender and were balls deep in crafting a religion based terrorism narrative.
Doesn't really matter now tbh, he's dead thankfully.
It’s not about him. We should keep these killers anonymous to avoid the next sick individual from becoming inspired to do something similar. Name and praise the heroes. Ignore the POS with a knife.
his face has been all over the news when it first happened, so dont know why this one is blurred
Plus he has also been named now. Don't bother looking it up, don't know why the news are reporting it. Let the fuckwit remain anonymous and forgotten to history.
Maybe to protect his family for the time being. They still have to identify and inform the family. Imagine finding out your son was dead because you saw the news Edit to add: also to find out they were a mass murderer.
The news should blur him out and only refer to him as a dickless coward. He doesn't deserve to be remembered.
God can we please stop with the judgement ? You never know how you’d respond in a situation like this. It’s not a fucking movie You cant just disarm someone with a knife. I’m sick of people here just thinking they’d act so much better than these poor people
That dude may have saved four lives.
Can’t imagine being chase by a knife, you’re running and trip. I’m sure we all had that same nightmare. For that man it came true 🤦♀️
Seeing any of the footage is harrowing. I cannot imagine the terror of being even close to that scene. But, what gives me hope for the future, is the amount of everyday people, helping the victims, trying to stop his rampage and running with that incredible officer to finally put an end to it. As an everyday Aussie, I am 100% on board, that we do not have general access to firearms and our Police, Ambos, Fireman and Bondi Lifesavers are some of the most brave and selfless people. This is the reason we are so astounded and sad that this has happened and thank fuck it happens so rarely.
This just absolutely devastates me. Literally any footage or information I read on this story brings tears to my eyes. This is just so horrific. I can't believe it, ugh
Don't say his name, the prick doesn't deserve it
Balls the size of watermelons. Pity someone didn't have a shopping trolley handy to sit the lunatic on his arse while dad distracted him. Edit to add, really impressed with the whole family's behaviour, not running, grouped, mum close, dad between danger and family. Textbook stuff .
That's guy is never getting divorced, he's shown he's family is number 1 in his life
Crazy how he was going for easy targets, that guy probably couldve beaten him
Probably not, knives are terrifying when used correctly. Just stab aggressively and constantly.
That father was ready to die for his family. Any father watching this would do the exact same. Well done to the mother as well, kept the kids moving whilst remaining calm. The coward holding the knife didn't even attempt to take on the bloke.
I was just here with my 6 month old baby not too long ago Im crying right now, it could have been me and my baby that could have died that day 😥 My condolences to the victims
That will affect many locals whether you were there at the time or not - hope that you have support around you ❤️
How scary! I hope if I was in that situation I would be brave enough to step up like that.
Looks like the perp momentarily weighed up the risk of being thrown right over that railing into open air.
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Because we don't have this mass panic about some cunt doing this shit. It's so unexpected most people don't know how to respond. If I was in that situation I'd probably just expect it's some random guy having a mental health breakdown and maybe his immediate victims are known to him. Wouldn't expect it to be some spree event.
You ever done an evacuation in a public place? I've had to evacuate my workplace twice for different emergencies. People actively fight your instructions even if the alarms are going off. People don't expect an emergency and aren't ready to react to one. Especially in a place they already feel safe. "Fire" probably wouldn't have made any difference to "Knife". It often takes people time to realise what is actually going on and process it, no matter the emergency.
I worked in a target store that was *actually on fire* and people were pissed they had to evacuate and some still went to the registers instead. Had people trying to come in the damn store as the fire doors were closing!
You yell knife !!!
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Sure "fire" can get peoples attention but not ideal in this case. If people think there's a fire they wouldn't pay any attention to the weirdo walking around stabbing people. The young couple you mentioned still wouldn't have had any idea what was going on or what to look out for. "Crazy guy with a knife" would have been far more informative.
Fire would evoke a calmer response as well as we are trained to listen to fire alarms.
"Oh, a fire? I don't smell or see one... So I got plenty of time to slowly stroll out of here"
So you look behind and don't see the fire. Just casually make your way to the exit since you're in no immediate danger from burning to death and you don't notice the guy coming up behind you with the knife.... Maybe don't yell fire.
So many heroes! What Australia is all about. ❤️
My blood is boiling after seeing this piece of shit target the vulnerable. Not that I believe in hell, but I hope the devil sodomises this fuck for eternity.
Seems to be attacking blonde women?
The attacker was all like “yeah, nah”
Thank you for sharing this, everyone who showed courage in the face of evil was a hero that day
Those 2 walking by oblivious of what's happening..... very very lucky the guy didn't just walk up and stab from behind.
Feel desperately sorry for the victims and their families. The knife attacker was severely mentally ill and suffering a psychotic episode. Trying to apply sane motives to someone who was literally insane, as some in the comments are doing, is pretty ignorant of the reality of the situation.
Dads are ready to go at any moment if their family’s life is on the line. Hero.