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At the wrong place, at the wrong time.
French construction workers Damien Guerot and Silas Despréaux were in the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre on their way to the gym at the moment when 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, armed with a knife, embarked on a mass stabbing [[13 April]] that killed six people and badly injured 12 more, including an infant.
CCTV footage shows the men grabbing bollards, brandishing it at Joel Cauchi as he uses the escalator.
Mr Guerot says he and his friend, Silas, were acting purely on instinct, telling SBS French it all happened so quickly.
“When we first saw him facing us, and the people around that were on the ground after being stabbed, our first reaction, like everybody else, was to run away. But then we found the bollard. We needed to defend ourselves. And that’s when Silas went with no cover downstairs. We tried to hit him but he was out of range, and then the assailant ran in the opposite direction. We ran after him with our bollards, and that’s when he reached that escalator. He was one floor below us.”
Mr Despréaux has told SBS French he felt an urgency to act as there were so many shoppers in the line of attack.
“There were lots of people running downstairs. We shouted at them to get back upstairs. And we reached the escalator – he was already on his way up, and just a few metres above him, there was a lady who hadn’t realised at all what was going on. When she finally realised she ran past me and that’s when I decided to throw my bollard at him. At that point, I can’t see anything around me; I’m in a bubble. So I throw the bollard at him, hit him in the leg. But unfortunately, it doesn’t stop him. And at this point, I can see in his eyes he didn’t like what I just did and I am now his target.”
At this point, Mr Guerot saw an opportunity – and he took it.
“I was looking for the right opportunity to throw the bollard at him but it was difficult with the moving escalator. At the same time, I was really staring at him in the eyes, to show him we intended to stop him, that we too were determined, in order to get him to walk back by scaring him with that bollard. When I looked at him, he appeared to be in his own bubble, like if he were in a video game. He wasn’t really walking or running, it was really strange, like if he were on a mission.”
In the days that followed, the pair thought the whole ordeal was over – but it was the calm before the storm.
Mr Guerot – who was on a temporary work visa due to expire in a couple of months [[in July]] – found himself the subject of an online petition, calling on the federal government to grant him Australian citizenship over what was described as “a true act of Australianism” that saved lives.
Asked to respond to the call, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese extended an invitation of his own.
“You are welcome here. You are welcome to stay as long as you like. This is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen, although that would be a loss for France. We thank him for his extraordinary bravery. It says a lot about the nature of humanity at a time when we are facing difficult issues, that someone who is not a citizen of this country stood bravely at the top of those escalators and stopped this perpetrator from getting on to another floor and potentially inflicting further carnage on citizens.”
After living in Australia for eight years, seeking permanent residency, Mr Guerot says he was surprised to receive official confirmation from the Immigration Department.
“To get permanent residency in Australia, for some it’s a walk in the park and for others, it’s a real quest! I did two years of working holidays, had to work in farms, then I had to get a student visa for five years, and then a Covid visa, while I was preparing a skilled visa. Which is why I still can’t believe I’ve got permanent residency. I’ve wanted it for a very long time and I feel incredibly lucky, especially because it was granted by the Prime Minister. But I can’t celebrate it, because at the same time there are families grieving. So it’s a weird feeling. On one side I’m happy and on other, there is how I got it. So it’s really a weird feeling.”
Mr Despréaux, who already has permanent residency, says he was also taken aback by the level of interest.
“It’s been a difficult, complicated week. We weren’t expecting such interest for this story… What happened can’t be explained… Things are just starting to settle down and last night was actually the first I slept properly.”
Both say it has been hard moving forward, as they remember the lives lost in the Bondi attack.
The pair say they are approaching life with a renewed focus.
“That’s what we’re hoping for, go back to quiet, and start thinking about something else.”
