{"id":602424,"date":"2026-04-12T17:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602424\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T17:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:04:14","slug":"two-years-on-from-the-bondi-junction-stabbings-eight-courageous-people-will-receive-special-bravery-awards-bondi-junction-stabbings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602424\/","title":{"rendered":"Two years on from the Bondi Junction stabbings, eight courageous people will receive special bravery awards | Bondi Junction stabbings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Muzafar Ahmad doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll ever completely adapt to life without his brother, Faraz Tahir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tahir was working his first daytime shift as a security guard at Westfield Bondi Junction when Joel Cauchi began his stabbing rampage<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud of his bravery,\u201d said Ahmad, who is the eldest of six siblings. \u201cHe was like a son to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201ccourageous and determined response in unspeakable and horrific circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mourners hold up posters of Faraz Tahir during a candlelight vigil to honour the victims of the Bondi Junction tragedy. Photograph: Dean Lewins\/AAPFrom left: Sheraz Ahmad Munir Ahmad, Muzafar Ahmad Tahir and Mudasar Bashir, brothers of Bondi Junction stabbing victim Faraz Tahir. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts\/AAP<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir 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,\u201d the governor general, Sam Mostyn, said of the eight recipients.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cauchi<\/a>, 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>.<\/p>\n

NSW police inspector Amy Scott. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/p>\n

A coronial inquest into their deaths found it was a \u201cmajor failing\u201d<\/a> for Cauchi\u2019s 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<\/a> mental health system.<\/p>\n

Taha, Scott, and the two French nationals who acted as her makeshift backup, Silas Despr\u00e9aux and Damien Jean Guerot, will all receive bravery medals recognising their courage.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

She asked the store manager to open the doors so she could assist them. He told her that if he did, he wasn\u2019t sure if he could let her back in.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, one of the victims did not survive,\u201d the statement about the awards said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite 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,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Flowers at a memorial site at the reopening of the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi\/AAP<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe offender was a metre away from Mr McLaughlin when he lifted the knife and pointed it at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr 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,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

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 Despr\u00e9aux and Guerot. When they heard a man was stabbing people, Despr\u00e9aux told Guerot: \u201cLet\u2019s go catch him.\u201d<\/p>\n

They tried to stop Cauchi using heavy bollards from a clothing store<\/a>, throwing them down an escalator as he moved up it towards them.<\/p>\n

The men closely followed Scott, who found Cauchi, yelled at him to stop, and then ran after him.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cmate\u201d to get Cauchi\u2019s attention. He turned towards her and started sprinting. Shouting \u201cstop, drop it\u201d, she fired three times.<\/p>\n

Less than six minutes after his rampage began, Cauchi lay motionless outside an art and craft shop.<\/p>\n

Mental health reform needed<\/p>\n

The state coroner, Teresa O\u2019Sullivan, handed down her inquest findings in an 837-page report in February, having delayed its release after the Bondi beach terror attack<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n

She said the inquest was both an opportunity to examine Cauchi\u2019s care, but also the systemic issues in the state\u2019s mental health system.<\/p>\n

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 \u201crealistic timeline\u201d to resource them.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anniversary of the Bondi<\/a> Junction attack will be very difficult for our state which was profoundly affected by this tragedy that changed so many lives forever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never forget the heroism that no doubt saved countless lives \u2013 from members of the public who bravely confronted the attacker, retailers who protected the public and first responders including NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the coroner\u2019s court in February, McLaughlin told media that Young\u2019s absence had \u201cleft a vast and permanent space\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne that can\u2019t be filled, only carried,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The death of Tahir had changed Ahmed\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pray for him to rest in peace every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Muzafar Ahmad doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll ever completely adapt to life without his brother, Faraz Tahir. Tahir was working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-602424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}