NSW police officer who shot dead the Bondi attacker to give evidence

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The police inspector credited with saving countless lives in the Bondi Junction stabbing attack after shooting dead the attacker will today give her account of what happened at the coronial inquest in Sydney.

Transcript

00:00Several people praised for their bravery during the Bondi stabbing attack last year in April

00:08will today give their evidence here at the Coroner's Court in Lidcombe

00:12and among those people is NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott

00:16who shot dead Joel Couchie as he went on a stabbing rampage

00:20through a Westfield shopping mall in Bondi Junction.

00:24Six people were killed and ten others were injured

00:27and Amy Scott was praised for her bravery, courage and her professionalism

00:33on the first day of the court and first day of the inquest yesterday

00:37for her handling of the situation.

00:40As people ran from danger, she ran towards it.

00:43Two French nationals will also give evidence today

00:47as they fended off Mr Couchie with bollards inside the mall

00:51and they're expected to be the only two civilian eyewitnesses

00:56to be called to the stand in the hearing, at least so far.

01:00The court also heard yesterday the sort of disturbing mindset of Mr Couchie

01:06and how he had an obsession with serial killers, death and also had planned the attack

01:12and the inquest was told that it's highly unlikely we'll ever know the true motive behind why

01:17he did what he did.

01:20A couple of key elements that are being looked into over this inquest

01:23is the handling of security at the Westfield shopping mall.

01:26This is run by Centre Group and it was revealed yesterday in court

01:30that there was only one security guard monitoring CCTV cameras at the time of the attack

01:37and when Joel Couchie went on that attack, that person was in the toilet at the time

01:43and by the time she returned, Joel Couchie had already stabbed eight people,

01:47three of which went on to die.

01:50And so there will certainly be significant questions around how security staff are trained

01:55and what could be done to better prepare for situations like this in the future.

02:01Mental health services has also come under the spotlight in both New South Wales and Queensland.

02:08The 40-year-old suffered from chronic schizophrenia and it wasn't

02:12and it was left untreated for five years leading up to the attack.

02:19Obviously this is a confronting and emotional time for families.

02:23What's been their response?

02:26Yeah, there's been an extraordinary amount of evidence prepared for this inquest

02:31and that's very confronting for those families that now have to sit

02:35and relive that experience over the next five weeks for this inquest

02:40and it's caused a lot of division amongst some families.

02:43One in particular, John Singleton, who lost his 25-year-old daughter Dawn Singleton

02:48during the attack, has come out and said he would like to have the inquest shelved.

02:55It's important to note that this inquest is a chance for people to look at

03:00what led up to this event and what could be done to prevent something like this

03:05from happening in the future.

03:06John Singleton has said that it's only set to bring more stress and trauma

03:11for the families impacted from that attack.

03:15Here at the Coroner's Court in Lidkamp, family and investigators and lawyers

03:19will be coming and going over the next five weeks

03:21as this inquest runs from 10am to 4pm every week up until May 30th.

03:26So, let's look at this inquest.

03:27So, let's see if this is what happens for us.

03:29Probably shouldn't have been to the leaves.

03:31So, in this right now,

03:33let's look at the confusion always in front of the station

03:35because of the darkness of the familiar,

03:37because the darkness of the leaves are alone and the light of darkness

03:39and then there's more laby in dentro now.

03:42Notice that there are probably things that happen

03:45and the light of darkness of light,

03:48it's only being inmate right I do not see if this creature.

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