OPINION: Fight or flight is the built-in response we all have, but it’s impossible to know how you might react until you face a crisis.
One of the most terrifying situations to be confronted with was the deadly Westfield Bondi Junction stabbings of 12 months ago.
Six people were killed and 12 others injured in the rampage unleashed by 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, armed with a lethal hunting knife.
He indiscriminately and senselessly attacked innocent people doing the most innocent of things: visiting a busy shopping centre on the first day of school holidays.
Families, teenagers, children and babies, security guards – anyone and everyone in his sights.
The coronial inquest under way into that horrific day is shining a light on the extraordinary bravery of those who went straight into fight mode, running towards the danger despite the risk to their own lives, and in the process saving countless others.
The evidence from NSW Police Officer Amy Scott, who shot dead the attacker, is as remarkable as her actions.
Arriving at the scene without backup or the vest and police equipment that might protect her, she told the inquest she’d resigned herself to the fact she was probably going to die.
She knew she didn’t have time to wait for her police colleagues, so she went into the shopping centre alone, chased the attacker down, distracted him from a mother with a pram hiding behind a pot plant, and when he ran at her, she fired her gun.
Her actions saved lives.
Running along with her were two young men, French construction workers Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot, who also went into fight mode.
After seeing people running and knowing a man was stabbing people, the pair decided to “go catch him”.
After spotting the attacker, they looked for whatever they could to protect themselves, both grabbing bollards.
They ushered a woman to safety then tried to stop the attacker in his tracks, and the pictures of what these men did – these bystanders turned heroes – will stay with me forever.
With the attacker just metres away on an escalator, they hurled a bollard at him, then tried to trap him as his rampage continued.
These men ran into the face of danger, then ran with the police officer who did the same.
Lives were saved because of their actions, and it gives me goosebumps thinking of what these extraordinary people did.
On a day of so much loss, Scott’s words to the inquest perfectly sum up the courage and bravery that was also on display: “As tragic as that day was, it restored my faith in humanity.”
Quite simply, they are heroes.
