A dying mother who thrust her injured baby into the arms of two strangers and begged them to save the child’s life is the first victim of the Sydney stabbing spree to be identified.
Australian media reports say 38-year-old Ash Good died in a hospital on Saturday evening from stab wounds sustained at Westfield Bondi Junction, a six-level shopping center in Sydney.
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Her 9-month-old baby, Harriet, was also wounded when a 40-year-old male suspect armed with a knife attacked several people at the mall at around 3:20 p.m. local time.
Six people were killed in the unprovoked attack, and eight were hospitalized with injuries, including the baby. The assailant was fatally shot by a hero cop who was first to respond to the scene, authorities said.
Good succumbed to her injuries after being transported to St. Vincent’s Hospital in critical condition, NCA Newswire reported.
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Two witnesses who spoke to 9News said she handed them her baby and begged them to help her before they were taken to an ambulance.
“The baby got stabbed,” the witness said.
The witness and his brother said they helped to compress the mom and baby’s wounds before they were taken to paramedics.
“The mom got stabbed, and the mom came over with the baby and threw it at me and [I] was holding the baby,” he told the local station.
The witness described their injuries as “very bad” and said “there was a lot of blood on the floor.”
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Reese Colmenares was among 20 others who hid in a hardware store when people started running out of the mall, including the mother and her baby.
“The mother was terrified, the mother was sad, just holding (and) comforting the baby,” she told Reuters.
Sky News anchor Laura Jayes revealed live on-air that she had known the mother, though she did not identify the victim by name.
In an emotional report, Jayes said Good was a “mother in the prime of her life.”
“She has a beautiful circle of friends. She’s a beautiful woman. She was an incredible athlete. And she had the world at her feet. She got married in recent years,” Jayes said.
“Her family are on their way — rushing here now. So many family and friends wanted to be at the hospital this afternoon, they had to take turns going in and out of the waiting room.”
“Her baby went into surgery, and her mum didn’t make it. That is really hard news to take,” Jayes said.
Fighting through tears to deliver her report, Jayes described the mother’s brave final moments.
“If you have a new baby like that, a nine-month-old, you are still well and truly in the newborn phase. You are with that baby all the time,” she said.
“And for her, I can’t imagine her needing to hand over the most precious thing in her life.”
Though she did not identify the mother out of respect for the family’s privacy, Jayes said the victim was an “incredible” person.
“As I say, she’s one of those all-rounders. She was an incredible athlete, so smart, so beautiful, and she was just so excited to be a new mother,” she said.
“And all of that was ripped away in seconds, here, this afternoon.”
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters Saturday that the fatal stabbings are under investigation. The suspect was known to police, but investigators are waiting to confirm his identity before revealing it to the public.
Webb added that police do not believe he was “holding an ideation — in other words, that it’s not a terrorism incident.”
“Let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk, and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased,” Webb said during a news conference.
