EXCLUSIVE
Traumatized retail workers who heroically saved a nine-month-old baby burst into tears as they bravely returned to the scene of the Bondi stabbing for the first time since the horror attack.
Ashlee Good, 38, threw her injured baby into the arms of strangers inside the Tommy Hilfiger store in Sydney’s Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon, pleading with them to save her daughter’s life, despite being seriously ill herself. wound.
Using clothes from the store to stop the bleeding, shoppers and staff worked desperately to stabilize the couple until emergency services arrived on the scene.
The baby is currently in serious but stable condition after undergoing emergency surgery; However, despite the best efforts of bystanders and paramedics, her mother later died at the hospital.
Tommy Hilfiger staff, along with workers from sister company Calvin Klein, gathered Monday morning at the memorial set up in the Oxford Street shopping center to honor the victims of the attack.
Retail workers from Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger laid flowers at the Bondi Junction memorial site on Monday.
There were emotional scenes as the group hugged and cried.
The group could be seen hugging each other as they burst into tears after leaving bouquets of flowers on the ground.
The Calvin Klein manager told WhatsNew2Day Australia that Tommy Hilfiger staff had worked to save the lives of the baby and his mother by collecting clothes from the store and helping to compress their wounds.
Shortly after leaving the memorial site, members of the group could be seen hugging each other as they sat on a wooden bench sobbing.
“It’s still pretty raw for them,” he said.
The stores, both owned by parent company PVH Corp, are located on level four but on opposite sides of the centre.
When chaos broke out on Saturday, both stores closed.
Two brothers who were at the Tommy Hilfiger store and helped save the baby described their ordeal moments after being evacuated from the center on Saturday to a live Channel Nine journalist.
“The baby was stabbed and, yes, the mother was stabbed,” one brother said.
“The mother came up with the baby and threw it at me.
“I just helped by holding the baby… and trying to compress him.”
The manager said she organized a meeting of staff from the two stores so they could support each other as they returned to the scene of the tragedy.
She said she wasn’t working Saturday but was “very proud” of her team, who acted quickly to shelter in place with shoppers.
“KJ, here,” she said, gently patting another visibly upset woman on the back, “took care of everyone and got them to safety.”
Pictured: The Tommy Hilfiger store inside Bondi Junction, where workers fought to save the life of a nine-month-old girl.
The baby’s mother, Ashlee Good (pictured), is one of six people who died in the tragedy.
A Calvin Klein employee said she was on break when the havoc began to unfold.
“I was walking downtown and I was talking on the phone and I thought it was funny that people were running,” he said.
“Then suddenly I saw people hiding in shops and heard screams and gunshots.”
When asked how he felt returning to the scene, he said it was “strange.”
‘It’s really scary. You feel a little nervous when you are in public.
While the center’s reopening date has yet to be announced, workers and shoppers have been granted access to pick up their cars after police closed the crime scene on Monday.
As the group departed, a worker, whose car was still parked at Westfield, could be seen preparing for the difficult task of re-entering the building to pick up her vehicle.
Police were called to the busy shopping center at 3.20pm on Saturday, the first day of school holidays, after Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old man with schizophrenia, began massacring shoppers with a hunting knife, killing six. and injuring at least a dozen. others.
Footage posted online shows the chaos and terror that erupted as shoppers fled for their lives, running through the center, while others took shelter in closed stores.
Inspector Amy Scott was patrolling nearby and was the first to arrive on the scene. She entered the shopping center alone and bravely ran towards the offender, before shooting him dead when he lunged at her with the knife.
Calvin Klein workers and their loved ones (woman sitting on the left, couple standing on the left, and woman and man standing on the right) and Tommy Hilfiger employees and their friends (sitting on the bench/crouching on the floor in center) visited the memorial on Monday to pay tribute to the victims
Advertising heiress Dawn Singleton, 25, architect Jade Young, 47, artist Pikria Darchia, 55, security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, and Chinese student Yixuan Cheng, 27 years, died on the spot.
Twelve other people, including Ms Good and her daughter, were rushed to hospitals across Sydney in varying conditions.
While investigations are still in their early stages, police revealed Cauchi was originally from Queensland but moved to Sydney about a month ago.
He had long-standing mental health problems after being diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 17, and authorities were working to determine what level of care he had received and whether he had fallen foul of the mental health system.
Cauchi lived a transient lifestyle and was believed to have been sleeping rough in Sydney.
It is understood he has not been in regular contact with his family and has not taken medication.
On Monday, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns announced $18 million funding for an independent coronial inquiry into Saturday’s tragedy.