Amy Scott confronted and killed the Bondi Junction attacker. She just relived those moments.

When Inspector Amy Scott clocked in for work on April 13, 2024, she thought it would be just another day.

She had no idea it would be one that changed Sydney's history forever.

Instead, Amy found herself running solo into Westfield Bondi Junction — straight into the chaos of one of the city's darkest days.

It was the day a man named Joel Cauchi went on a stabbing rampage, killing six people and injuring 10 more.

Amy was the first police officer on the scene. She had no idea what she was walking into.

"I actually felt nauseous as I ran in," she told the NSW Coroners Court this week. "Because in my head, I resigned myself to the fact I was probably going to die."

What she was met with was panic. Shoppers were streaming out of the complex, screaming for help.

"People started saying to me … 'He's killing people, you've got to help us, please get in there.'"

So she did. Alone.

Police at the scene. Image: Getty.

Amy assessed the situation as an "active armed offender" and made a split-second decision.

"I knew I couldn't wait for my colleagues to arrive — I just had to go in."

Inside the centre, two tradies, now known as the "bollard men", stepped up to help. Together, they confronted Cauchi.

As Amy reached the fifth floor of the shopping centre, she warned civilians nearby to get behind her, or somewhere safe — anywhere out of the way.

There, she found Cauchi, holding a large military knife. Behind him, she spotted a woman with a pram hiding behind a potplant.

"I mouthed at her to 'run'," Amy said, making sure that there were no civilians in her or Cauchi's path.

At that point, Cauchi turned his attention toward the mum. But Amy screamed 'mate' to bring his attention back to her.

Cauchi charged at her with a 30-centimetre knife. Amy fired her gun.

One shot. Then another. A third hit a pot plant.

The one the mother had been hiding behind moments before Amy encouraged her to flee.

In just 85 seconds, it was over. But for Amy, those 85 seconds will last a lifetime.

When asked what went through her mind as she pulled the trigger, she said simply: "That he was going to kill me."

"In my mind, it was extremely slow. I knew my first shot had hit him … but he continued to come towards me," she said.

She told him "Stop, drop it" and backed up as he moved towards her, before firing the second and third shot.

Cauchi fell to the ground with the knife under him, but Amy could not be sure of his condition.

"I knew I had to bite the bullet and make sure that weapon was secure," she said.

So, she approached.

Seeing that he was incapacitated, she threw the knife away from him, put him in the recovery position and began first aid.

Amy was emotional in the witness box as she praised the bravery of her fellow officers that day — and the toll the job can take.

"We ask a lot of young police," she said. "We as a society think that police don't feel fear, don't feel the burdens and pressures of what everyday humans do.

"I can assure you that they do. They were absolutely extraordinary and they saved lives on that day."

The victims of the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing. Yixuan Cheng, Ashlee Good, Dawn Singleton, Jade Young, Faraz Tahir and Pikria Darchia. Image: AAP.

She's also adamant she wasn't the only hero.

Friends Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot (aka the "bollard men") also gave evidence at the inquest. They were inside the centre when the attack began and decided they had to do something. So they went after Cauchi.

"I knew I needed to stop him, even if it meant hurting him," Silas said in a police statement.

At one point, they hurled bollards at him. When asked outside court why they followed Amy into danger, armed only with a plastic chair and a shopping cart, instead of waiting outside with everyone else, Silas had a simple answer: "She was alone."

During the six-minute attack, six people were killed.

Dawn Singleton, 25, Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Pikria Darchia, 55, Yixuan Cheng, 27 and security guard Faraz Tahir, 30.

Now, a coroner is tasked with trying to make sense of it all.

The inquest into the tragedy began this week, with the court hearing Cauchi did not appear to have any terrorist ideology, nor was he targeting women. It was random, whoever had the tragic fate of crossing his path.

Community members left tributes at a memorial outside the shopping centre. Image: Getty.

Cauchi's internet search history in the days prior was described as "distressing", with searches relating to weapons, violence and mass killings in Australia and overseas including the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.

Notes on his phone included references to an attack at a mall with a knife, the inquest heard.

"Mr Cauchi was preoccupied with weapons, with violence and with mass killing," lawyer Peggy Dwyer told the NSW Coroners Court. However, she added that Cauchi was "floridly psychotic" when walking through Bondi Westfield, according to psychiatric evidence.

The timing of the attack also revealed a heartbreaking gap: the stabbings began just 40 seconds after the shopping centre's only security guard briefly left the control room to go to the bathroom. During that time, no one was watching the CCTV network.

When security did raise an alert, it was the wrong one — a general evacuation, not an armed offender warning. And communication between first responders was hindered by a blaring alarm that made it difficult to hear one another.

They have also raised issues of communication between NSW Ambulance and police. The inquest heard that Westfield was declared a 'hot zone' with paramedics ordered to leave the centre and 'stand down'. However, at 4:27pm the court heard police believed there was only one armed offender.

While this delay did not change outcomes in this case, it has been noted as a learning.

"If there had been any severely injured individuals in need of urgent medical attention, any form of lockdown or restriction on access by first responders would obviously have the potential to compromise care and could've had a catastrophic consequence. Fortunately it did not," Peggy Dwyer said.

The inquest also heard that Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager and was successfully treated for years. But in 2019, he stopped taking his medication.

By 2020, as COVID hit, he had moved to Brisbane and stopped attending psychiatric sessions altogether.

His condition deteriorated, and in the years before the attack, he lived a transient lifestyle. He was homeless when he entered Westfield for the final time.

The inquest, led by Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan, is expected to run for five weeks. It will examine Cauchi's mental health, communication with police, and the response from security and media.

Recommendations will be made if necessary.

The inquest continues.

-With AAP

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