The Bondi attacker, Joel Cauchi, has been heard for the first time in newly released police body-cam footage showing a troubling interaction with officers before the deadly rampage.
The 40-year-old armed himself with a 30cm knife and carried out an unprovoked attack at Sydney’s Bondi Junction Westfield on April 13, 2024, killing six people and injuring 10 others.
The footage, released by Queensland Police on Wednesday, shows Cauchi demanding the return of his knife collection on January 8, 2023, more than a year before his move to Sydney.
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At the time, he was living with his parents at their family home in Toowoomba, near Brisbane, and had called police after his father confiscated the knives.
“My dad has taken some of my property — it’s pretty expensive,” Cauchi tells officers in the footage.
He described the items to Senior Constable Matthew McDonald and Constable Hope Porter as “military collectibles”, including a USMC Ka-Bar knife — the same type used in the Bondi rampage.
Cauchi had been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager, and his parents had confiscated the knives out of concern for his deteriorating mental health.
His mother Michele told officers her son was a different person when medicated, but he had stopped taking his medication in 2019 and stopped seeing a psychiatrist in 2020.
“My son’s got schizophrenia, he’s really not well. He needs help. A couple of years ago he was at university, at the top of the class,” Michele said.
Police didn’t take further action that day, but later that night, they emailed a Queensland Police Service mental health intervention coordinator (MHIC).
Joel Cauchi, 40, was flagged for a mental health follow-up in an email that was missed one year before his deadly rampage. Credit: 7NEWS The email described Cauchi as fidgety and fixated on retrieving his knives, and recommended a mental health follow-up.
However, the email was overlooked, and no action was taken.
Cauchi also appeared in more bodycam footage from September 2021, when he was pulled over for driving erratically in Brisbane.
The highway patrol officer described his driving as “very erratic” and “unsafe.”
During the stop, Cauchi handed over his licence and told the officer he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not taking medication at the time.
Ashlee Good, Yixuan Cheng, Pikria Darchia, Dawn Singleton, Jade Young, and Faraz Tahir were all killed in the stabbing attack, and 10 others were injured, including a nine-month-old baby.
The inquest into mass killings at Bondi Juntion follows the devastating attack’s first anniversary. Credit: 7NEWS, Julie Singleton NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott ended the attack by fatally shooting Cauchi.
By this time, Cauchi was no longer living with his parents, he was homeless, “floridly psychotic” and “completely detached from the mental health system,” the court heard.
Police seized his phone after the incident, uncovering web searches that displayed a preoccupation with killing, serial killers, weapons and death since at least 2022.
Improving mental health treatment and responses is expected to be a major recommendation by the Coroner.