Already and this this is the Dailyah, this is the Daily oas Oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday, the fifteenth of April.
I'm zara, i'm sam.
Australia has been rocked after the killing of at least six people at the Bondai Junction Westfield shopping center in Sydney's East. As we record this podcast, there are a number of victims who remain in a critical condition and it's very possible that we could see the death toll rise even further. On today's podcast, we'll update you on what exactly happened, how the community has responded, and the
questions that still remain. Before we get to that story, though, it was a big weekend of news, not just here in Australia but globally.
That's right. Over the weekend, Iran launched more than two hundred missiles at Israel. Iran said he was in retaliation to an Israeli strike on the Uranian embassy compound in Syria earlier this month. While Israel and Iran have had a hostile relationship for many decades, this marked the first
time Iran had launched a direct attack on Israel. According to Israel's military, the majority of missiles were intercepted following the attack, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albernizi said quote Australia condemns Iran's attack on Israel. Anyone who cares for the protection of innocent life must stand against these attacks.
Two bodies were found over the weekend in a shipping container in the New South Wales Central West. New South Wales Police confirmed an investigation had been launched following the discovery of the two bodies and are now appealing to the public for further information.
Billionaire Andrew Twiggy Forrest has had to drop a criminal lawsuit against Meta relating to fake crypto ads on Facebook which featured his face and name. The owner of Fortskew Metals accused the social media giant of being criminally reckless by allowing the scam ads to target vulnerable Facebook users, who he alleged lost their savings due to the ads. On Friday, WA's Director of Public Prosecutions, which was set to prosecute the case on Forest's behalf, dropped the proceedings
due to quote insufficient evidence. Forrest said this showed quote the Australian legal system is incapable of holding meta to account.
And today's good news because I think we all need it. New paintings have been discovered in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. A banquet room decorated with characters from the story of the Trojan War from Greek mythology are among the new areas brought to light follows recent excavation efforts among ruins dating back thousands of years. Pompei was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in seventy nine AD.
A third of the ancient city remains covered in debris as archaeologists continue to work to discover more about life in the region for the eruption. Before we get into today's deep dive, this is one of those days I think where the new cycle can feel especially heavy. I think that it's important to remind all of you about two things. The first is that if you are not in the headspace to listen to this podcast today, please feel free to skip it and come back again tomorrow.
If you need some help, you can always contact Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen and in the same vein, I think it's important also just to also be a bit self aware about the way that you are consuming media At times like this, I think that we all need to be mindful about how much news we are consuming. And of course knowing the facts is really important and
that's what we're here to give you. But you know, reading every single person on Twitter's hot take might not be so take care of yourself and let's get into today's deep dive. Okay, So, Sam, this story unfolded over a number of hours, but we first became aware that something was happening in Sydney's East at Westfield Bondai Junction and around three point thirty on Saturday. Take me back to there and talk me through what the facts are that we now know unfolded over that timeline.
Sure. So at that point, at three point thirty pm, police were called to the Westfield Bondney Junction shopping center
following reports multiple people had been stabbed. The reports indicated that a man had been moving across a number of levels in the shopping center and covered a large section of the location, and almost immediately shoppers began hiding in shops and storerooms as the man, who was rested in an Australian Rugby League Jersey and carrying a large knife attacked shoppers now by three forty pms, so only ten minutes later, the center was in chaos as witnesses reported
people running towards exits, evacuation alarms going off. And this was really when the media started to get word of this major incident unfolding. And at that time the government and New South Wales police declared the attack a critical incident, but we still really didn't know what exactly was happening.
Yeah, and at that point, the attacker was still actively moving around the center and I think that's part of what is so hard to comprehend about this story is how long he moved around the center. Yeah, So what do we know happened from there?
Well, we know that tactical police entered the center and in some of the CCTV footage we can see the attacker around that time lunge at victims and run towards shoppers, followed in close pursuit by a sole police officer and her name is Police Inspector Amy Scott. Now, a few seconds later, out of the frame of the CCTV footage that we saw on Sunday, we hear three gunshots ring out and what we do know is that Inspector Scott ordered the man to drop his knife and when he
refused to do so, he was shot three times. Now, according to one eyewitness speaking to nine, Scott was on another level of the shopping center performing CPR on a victim before running upstairs in pursuit of the attacker, and just after she shot the attacker, she then performed CPR on him and that takes us to about four pm, and between then and five thirty pm, a number of
people were taken to hospital. There was a growing almost car park of ambulances outside Westfield and there were growing fears on social media that the attacker was not acting alone and footage started to emerge on social media of this man with a knife, and what we started to see was incredible footage of bravery from civilians who were warding off the man with almost anything they could find,
you know, bollards, chairs, whatever was in the area. And at about six thirty pm, New South Wales Police Assistant commissioner, his name's Anthony Cook, he told media that the man was acting alone and people were still at that point being evacuated from inside the building. Many of whom had been hiding in shops for almost two hours.
And do you just want to talk about that period between the incident unfolding and the police press conference that happened at six point thirty, because I have never seen so much misinformation spread so quickly online Because obviously police were busy dealing with the incident at hand. You know, you and I were on the phone trying to get
through to them. They couldn't tell us very much. They told us that there had been a stabbing and a shooting incident, but they couldn't verify the number of victims, and they certainly couldn't tell us anything about the alleged perpetrator at the time.
Or if he was acting alone at that point exactly.
And so in the absence of this verified information, it was quite unlike anything I've really seen in Australia before that there was just so much I want to say misinformation and disinformation, because they're different things. Disinformation is when you are knowingly sharing false information. Sure, and I think that when we actually got to hear directly from police, there was you know, recognition that we were getting the facts finally, and not just hearsay through social media and.
The other thing that struck me about that time period was just how much graphic footage was emerging onto social media. Now, of course this is a reality of major insights that happened all over the world, and the fact that it's in the shopping center. Everybody was, you know, from different levels, ready to film. But that was a lot to see before we really knew exactly what was happening.
It was and you know, there are many downsides and vicious trauma that emerges when you're viewing things like that, But I do think that one of I guess, I don't know silver linings of that was that very quickly we became aware of the incredible bravery that was being demonstrated by everyday Australians. You know, everyone would have seen that video of the man standing at the top of the escalator with a ballard trying to stop the perpetrator from killing anyone else. You know, the bravery of the
policewoman to run directly alone towards the perpetrator. And it's become clear that she saved many lives in acting in the way that she did.
Totally and there's consensus across the board that her taking that decisive action meant that more people did not die, and that's come from everyone from the New South Wales Police Minister, to the Prime Minister, to local witnesses, and she is being hailed as a hero. Now, according to the New South Wales Police Minister, Inspector Scott is being well looked after because it is a traumatic event and spent Sunday with her family.
I want to move now to the victims because I think that certainly in the aftermath, we have seen a lot of coverage about the attacker, and I think that there needs to be a recognition that the stories of the victims and the names of the victims should always remain at the forefront of this sort of reporting. So what can you tell me about what we know? And of course this is still unfolding about the victims that have been identif fight so far.
So the first victim to be publicly identified was Ashley Good. She was a thirty eight year old Sydney resident who was in the shopping center with her nine month old baby girl. Now, according to eyewitness reports, Good passed the baby to bystanders after they were both attacked, asking them to save her daughter. Her daughter is currently in Sydney Children's Hospital after undergoing surgery on Saturday night, but is expected to survive. Good died after being taken to hospital.
And absolutely horrific, horrific story. And you know, a lot of the news outlets were running interviews with the men. I believe they were brothers who were handed the baby, and they just looked so traumatized. But I also just wanted to highlight something that Good's family issued in a statement.
The public Sunday morning.
Right, Yeah, so I'll read the quote now. They said, overnight, We've been shocked by some media publications reproducing photographs of Ashley, her partner, and our baby girl without our consent. It has caused extreme distress amongst Ashley's loved ones and we request that the photos be taken down.
Yeah. That again highlights just how quickly moving this story exploded on social media, but also the real human beings and families that this story is about.
But I also think it highlights the responsibility that the media has to report responsibly. And I saw a few outlets taking down photos, but there were still many up there, and a lot of outlets were ignoring the wishes of the family. I believe that the family has since issued a photo that they have approved for use by media.
So obviously a tragic story there. But that wasn't the only tragic story. We also learned of twenty five year old Dawn Singleton, who worked at the White Fox boutique after completing a degree at UTS and attending Kambala Girls School in Sydney's East. Then there was Jade Young, who was a forty year old mother of two from Bellevue Hill who was also killed. She was an architect practicing in Double Bay and she was an active member of
the Bronti Surf Life Saving Club. And then late on Sunday we learned about for us to hear He was aged thirty and he was a security guard working at Westfield and a Pakistani refugee who had arrived in Australia a year ago, and the Amadia Muslim community issued a statement saying to here was quote a cherished member of our community. And then early on Sunday evening, New South Wales Police confirmed the identity of the fifth victim, a
fifty five year old who lived in Bondai Junction. Her name was Picoia Dacia.
Now I think I'm in two minds about how we talk about the attacker, because certainly in the US there has emerged a principle that news outlets and media companies shouldn't glorify the attacker. So usually in a US setting, it to shooter and that you know by publishing the name and the details of the person, that you know the act is in some way being glorified in this situation. And look, I guess we won't know whether this is
the right or the wrong decision. I think that it is important to just briefly cover who this person was, because, like I said, there was a fair bit of misinformation spreading online that got to the point that a young man from Sydney was misidentified as the perpetrator for a number of hours, including by a major media outlet here, And so I think just stating the facts here is important.
And the information that we learned about the perpetrator was given to us by police commissioners from both New South Wales and Queensland in press conferences on Saturday night and yesterday. So what we know about this man is his name was Joel Couchi. He was a forty year old man from Queensland. He was thought to have moved to Sydney from Queensland about a month ago, and he'd been staying
in either his car or at a backpacker hostel. Now, according to the Queensland Police Commissioner, police last interacted with Couchi in December last year, but he had never been a rest or charged with a criminal offense. Now. New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb refused to describe the stabbings as quote an act of terror and also said there was quote no ideological motivation.
And I think there has been a lot of commentary around whether or not this should be classified as a terrorist attack, and there are still investigations ongoing and the experts will speak to that, but I just wanted to highlight what ASIO in Australia categorizes as terrorism because I think that being really clear on the definition is helpful
in these conversations. So, according to ASIO, under the Australian Security Intelligence Organization Act, an act of terrorism is one that is an act or a threat of violence that's intended or likely to achieve a political objective, an act or threat of violence intended to influence the policy of a government, or acts that involve violence or are likely to lead to violence are directed at overthrowing or destroying the government or system of the Australian government.
So, as we said, the investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
One thing that has also emerged is that it is very clear that the majority of the victims were women. So five of the six people killed in Saturday stabbing attack were women. What have we heard from authorities around the gendered element to this attack.
Well, sorry to repeat kind of what I've been saying throughout this but it is still an ongoing investigation and that's what authorities are telling us. But they are also telling us that they are aware that there could be a gendered element to this crime. And the new Stuthwales Police Commissioner Web said quote, obviously that will be a line of inquiry and that's concerning, but that will form a part of the investigation. Anyone seeing that footage can see that for themselves.
And so clearly as Commissioner Web is highlighting that there is a gendered element just statistically even to the number of women who died in this attack. But as with many elements of this story, we will have to see what the investigation and certainly we're likely to get more information in the days to come.
Yeah, and it's a solid reminder that we're not even forty eight hours out from this incident, and it's natural for us, even in media, to have a lot of questions still and to try to make sense of what had happened. But I dare say that an investigation of this scale, and even though we're talking on many broadcasts yesterday about the size of the crime scene, it's going
to take a long time. But regardless of the answers that we know right now, what is clear is that it's been a nation defining event and one that we are all collectively now recovering from.
Again. If this episode has brought up anything for you, you can contact Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen. Take care of yourself, and we'll be back again tomorrow.
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcuttin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries both past and present,