A man who was allegedly threatened with a knife by former soldier Travis Johnston while holding his 19-month-old son said he immediately thought of the tragic stabbing murders in Bondi Junction.
Marty Cooper was holding his son Forrest at the counter at Torquay Pharmacy in Victoria on Saturday when Johnston, 44, allegedly kicked him from behind.
“When I saw him walk away from me and attack another guy with a knife, my mind went to Bondi,” Cooper, 38, told the newspaper. Geelong Advertiser.
“It was like ‘Shit, this is another Bondi’, this guy is in a shop with a huge knife and he could walk up and stab everyone in here. They were panic stations.
Mr Cooper’s fears were amplified because his partner Juliet Adelstein is from Sydney and her family lives in Bondi Beach, which is just down the road from Bondi Junction.
Marty Cooper appears on the left, holding his son Forrest, while he was allegedly threatened by former soldier Travis Johnston.
There were around 15 people, including children, in the store at the time, and terrified customers were running to the back of the store to get away from the suspected knife.
Johnston, a 44-year-old military veteran, was arrested shortly after the incident, which was captured on CCTV, and has remained in custody since.
Cooper said Johnston made a motion to stab his son and feared the alleged attacker might also stab his partner, who was in the street.
“The idea of this guy stabbing my partner was probably the scariest thing because I had all this time to watch it, unlike the incident itself where I didn’t have time to think,” the former amateur boxer said.
The two alleged victims quickly came up with a plan to “stop them from killing anyone,” Cooper said.
Workshop staff told them they thought Johnston was a former SAS soldier.
But his plan to stop further violence was not necessary as Johnston was soon arrested.
He appeared in Geelong Magistrates Court on Monday charged with reckless conduct endangering serious injury, two counts of unlawful assault, intentionally causing injury, assault with a weapon and affray.
He is scheduled to return to court on May 22.
The alleged assault was the latest in a series of knife attacks that have shocked Australia.
In addition to the massacre at the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, which left six people dead, five of them women, there was also a shocking assault on a bishop during a live-streamed church service.
Travis Johnston (pictured), a 44-year-old military veteran, was arrested shortly after the incident.
Assyrian religious leader Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was preaching at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, in Sydney’s west, on April 15 when a teenager wearing a hoodie approached the altar and allegedly stabbed him repeatedly.
Horrific footage of the incident, which was streamed live on the church’s YouTube page, showed Bishop Emmanuel looking on in shock as the attacker suddenly rained blows on his face and head.
Sally Irwin, pharmacy assistant at Torquay Pharmacy, said: “Given what has been happening recently, it has affected us all, it is terrifying.”
