Muzafar Ahmad doesn’t think he’ll ever completely adapt to life without his brother, Faraz Tahir.
Tahir was working his first daytime shift as a security guard at Westfield Bondi Junction when Joel Cauchi began his stabbing rampage two years ago. The 30-year-old Tahir and his colleague Muhammad Taha ran towards Cauchi after being told by fleeing shoppers there was someone with a knife or a gun. Cauchi stabbed Tahir and Taha in the stomach. Tahir did not survive.
“I am proud of his bravery,” said Ahmad, who is the eldest of six siblings. “He was like a son to me.”
Tahir and Taha are two of the eight people who will on Sunday, which marks the second anniversary of the tragedy, be given special bravery awards to recognise their “courageous and determined response in unspeakable and horrific circumstances”.
“Their acts of bravery reflect the best of us, and remind us of the valour, compassion and service that are enduring and present across our communities,” the governor general, Sam Mostyn, said of the eight recipients.
“We also pay tribute to the 12 people injured, for their recovery and wellbeing, and all those whose lives were changed forever by the violence they witnessed on that terrible day.”
Cauchi, who lived with schizophrenia and was in a psychotic state during the attack, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Tahir, before he was shot and killed by police Insp Amy Scott.
A coronial inquest into their deaths found it was a “major failing” for Cauchi’s former psychiatrist not to recognise he had relapsed in the lead-up to the tragedy, and made a number of recommendations, including changes to the New South Wales mental health system.
Taha, Scott, and the two French nationals who acted as her makeshift backup, Silas Despréaux and Damien Jean Guerot, will all receive bravery medals recognising their courage.
Two posthumous medals will also be accepted by the loved one of Tahir and Good, who was murdered while she saved her nine-month-old daughter.
Noel McLaughlin, who is the husband of victim Jade Young, and Catherine Ann Molihan, a nurse who helped people, will also both receive commendations for their brave conduct.
Molihan ran into a shop after she heard people behind her screaming. After the door to the store had been locked, the nurse noticed two men on the floor outside the store who had been injured.
She asked the store manager to open the doors so she could assist them. He told her that if he did, he wasn’t sure if he could let her back in.
She went anyway, and provided first aid. She remained with the two victims, and worked with police officers to provide first aid while they waited for paramedics.
“Sadly, one of the victims did not survive,” the statement about the awards said.
Good was shopping with her daughter when Cauchi attacked her. To save her nine-month-old, who required surgery for her injuries, Good charged at Cauchi and pushed him away from the pram.
“Despite her serious injuries, Ms Good removed her injured infant from her pram and delivered her to bystanders taking refuge in a nearby store. Sadly, Ms Good then collapsed and later succumbed to her injuries,” the statement said.
McLaughlin got a phone call from his daughter saying her mother had been stabbed. He ran towards them. But before he reached them he encountered Cauchi.
“As the offender moved closer to him, Mr McLaughlin shouted repeatedly that he had a knife, which caused other people in the area to move back,” the statement said. “The offender was a metre away from Mr McLaughlin when he lifted the knife and pointed it at him.”
He asked Cauchi what he was doing, then, realising he had nothing to defend himself with he turned and again began to run towards his wife and daughter.
“Mr McLaughlin arrived on level four and found his wife unresponsive and lying down outside a shop. He called triple zero, before he commenced first aid with another member of the public,” the statement said.
Scott was part of the first police unit to respond to the emergency radio callout. She entered the mall without a partner. Instead, as makeshift backup she had Despréaux and Guerot. When they heard a man was stabbing people, Despréaux told Guerot: “Let’s go catch him.”
They tried to stop Cauchi using heavy bollards from a clothing store, throwing them down an escalator as he moved up it towards them.
The men closely followed Scott, who found Cauchi, yelled at him to stop, and then ran after him.
When he stopped about 20 metres ahead of her, she stopped as well. She silently signalled to a mother with a pram, hiding nearby, to run, then called out “mate” to get Cauchi’s attention. He turned towards her and started sprinting. Shouting “stop, drop it”, she fired three times.
Less than six minutes after his rampage began, Cauchi lay motionless outside an art and craft shop.
Mental health reform needed
The state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, handed down her inquest findings in an 837-page report in February, having delayed its release after the Bondi beach terror attack in December.
She said the inquest was both an opportunity to examine Cauchi’s care, but also the systemic issues in the state’s mental health system.
The coroner recommended the NSW government establish and support short- and long-term accommodation for people experiencing mental health issues and homelessness. She said the government should, over the next 12 months, obtain advice about the decline of mental health outreach services and determine a “realistic timeline” to resource them.
The government is yet to accept the recommendations. The minister for mental health, Rose Jackson, said the government continued to carefully consider the findings and was assessing how they could be implemented before accepting the recommendations.
“The anniversary of the Bondi Junction attack will be very difficult for our state which was profoundly affected by this tragedy that changed so many lives forever,” she said.
“Our thoughts remain with the families of those who lost loved ones, those who were injured and those who carry the memory and burden of that terrible day.
“We will never forget the heroism that no doubt saved countless lives – from members of the public who bravely confronted the attacker, retailers who protected the public and first responders including NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.”
Outside the coroner’s court in February, McLaughlin told media that Young’s absence had “left a vast and permanent space”.
“One that can’t be filled, only carried,” he said.
The death of Tahir had changed Ahmed’s life in a multitude of ways. After his death, the Australian government gave him, his wife, his three children and one of his brothers permanent residency. Ahmad said he would always grieve the irrevocable loss of his brother.
“I pray for him to rest in peace every day.”
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