The female cop who single-handedly confronted and stopped a knife-wielding madman who killed six people at a Sydney shopping mall has been identified as a veteran officer.
The officer – identified in local reports as Amy Scott, a high-ranking inspector at the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command – had been on the job for more than a decade prior to the harrowing attack at Sydney’s Westfield Bondi Junction Shopping Centre on Saturday.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Scott displayed “enormous courage and bravery” while responding to the incident that left six people dead, including a 38-year-old mother who desperately tried to protect her 9-month-old daughter, who remained in serious condition following surgery for her wounds.
Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke also praised Scott for her rapid response, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Photos taken at the choatic stabbing scene showed the officer kneeling beside the 40-year-old suspect whom she had just shot – his knife visible near his hands and a pool of blood gathering around him.
Scott shot the suspect in the chest, witness Jason Dixon told The Daily Telegraph.
“She had to shoot him because he just kept coming,” Dixon said. “He had a knife and he wasn’t going to stop. He was advancing at her and he was running, coming to get someone else. I’m glad she got him because if she didn’t, he would have stabbed her, too.”
The fearless female cop, who wasn’t injured, was “doing well under the circumstances,” Webb said.
“She showed enormous courage and bravery,” the police commissioner continued, adding Scott was alone when she confronted the suspect. “She will be interviewed tomorrow.”
