Bondi Junction stabbing Westfield: Police probe if Joel Cauchi was purposely targeting women

Police are investigating whether the Bondi Junction killer was deliberately targeting women.

Joel Cauchi was shot dead at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday after a murderous stabbing spree that took the lives of six people — five of them women. Of the 12 people rushed to hospital, 10 were women.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Sunday said the prospect that Cauchi aimed for women during his attack was an “obvious line of inquiry”.

“At this stage, we don’t know a motive,” she said.

“What we do understand, so far, is that there’s no ideological motivation.

“We do understand that there is a history of mental health, but it will be the ongoing work of the investigators to determine what his activities in the days prior that might indicate a motive.”

The victims have been identified as 38-year-old first-time mother Ash Good, whose nine-month-old baby girl was also attacked. She remained in a serious condition in hospital on Sunday night.

Pikria Darchia, 55, who describes herself as an artist, architect and mother-of-two, Jade Young and and Dawn Singleton, 25, were also among the women murdered.

Security guard Faraz Tahir was the only man to lose his life in the terror. The sixth woman killed is yet to be identified.

Graphic footage has emerged showing hero cop Inspector Amy Scott performing first-aid on one woman in a desperate attempt to save her life.

Cauchi was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2000. Police sources have told Sydney newspapers that Cauchi used drugs, including methamphetamine and psychedelics.

Queensland Police revealed that Cauchi had no record of being subject to a domestic violence order despite most of his victims on Saturday being women.

He had not been previously charged with any offence. Last year, he had called police alleging his father had perpetrated “domestic violence” against him by hiding his knives.