Following the tragic events in a Sydney shopping centre on Saturday 13 April, police have provided an update on a baby girl who was critically wounded.
Joel Cauchi, 40, from Queensland, Australia, went on a stabbing spree at Westfield Bondi Mall, killing six people and injuring numerous others on Saturday.
The perpetrator was shot dead by police following a stand-off in East Sydney.
The attacker looked to target women, but authorities still have not worked out a motive to the attack, attributing it to his history of mental illness.
Five women were murdered in the spree, including 38-year-old Ashlee Good, 25-year-old Dawn Singleton, 47-year-old Jade Young, 55-year-old Pikria Darchia, 27-year-old Yixuan Cheng and a 30-year-old man named Faraz Tahir.
Seven more were wounded, including the baby girl, who was in hospital on Monday night after her mother, Ashlee Good, sadly succumbed to her injuries in hospital after trying to save her daughter’s life after being attacked.
Brothers Danni and Coby du Preez stated that they witnessed the man ‘run up to the woman with the baby’.
9News Sydney reported that the siblings took the two to one side to call for help.
They tried to help compress the wounds of both mother and baby after the attack and held the nine-month-old.
Ashlee’s family released a statement about the incident, mourning the ‘terrible loss of Ashlee, a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all-round outstanding human and so much more’, after her heroic actions, also showing gratitude to the siblings who called for help.
Ashlee Good’s baby is improving in condition. (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park provided an positive update on the baby girl, revealing that her condition had improved.
He said: “Pleasingly, we have seen the nine-month-old baby in the children’s hospital at Randwick have her condition downgraded from critical to serious.
“We hope to have her on a ward over the next few days.”
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb stated that detectives would go to Queensland to speak to Cauchi’s family and friends to better understand what the offender was thinking.
She said: “He had a fascination with knives, we’ve been told that. What else was on his mind we really don’t know.”
His family have said that he lived with schizophrenia among other mental illnesses for decades, moving from Queensland to Sydney last month (March).
Andrew Cauchi, the killer’s father, stated: “He wanted a girlfriend and he has no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain.”
The mother saved her baby’s life with her actions. (Instagram)
The horrific incident caused hundreds of people to flee the shopping centre, with different people uploading footage of their view of the chaos to social media.
People have praised the police officer that apprehended the attacker and shot him, before trying to administer CPR to him prior to Cauchi being declared dead.
There is currently a memorial situated near the shopping centre, with floral tributes being made by members of the public, with the possibility of it being made permanent in the conversation.