13 Apr 2024 will forever be remembered as a day of infamy in Sydney.

It was in the evening around 6-7 pm on 13 Apr that I saw a news item on a stabbing in Bondi Junction, a place which I knew as it was where I changed buses coming from Bondi Beach to go to the  university decades ago.

However, the Bondi Junction of today has changed from a sleepy suburb where commuters come to change buses or take the train out of Bondi to a bustling shopping area. A huge shopping center, Westfield, has sprung up, changing the landmark.

I remembered a pie shop on the side of the street leading to Randwick. It was where Tony, my Wing Chun classmate introduced me to Australian pies. On the same row there was a record shop where I first came across AC/DC just hot off the success of the last album that the late Bon Scott would make. I also discovered the music of Cold Chisel, the band whose poster I saw everywhere, on the verge of splitting up, as well as other bands like the Hoodoo Gurus, Mental As Anything and Split Enz.

But today, 13 Apr, today was a day of infamy, of senseless killings by an unknown killer whose name would not be known until the next day.

He killed with a hunting knife, I could see a big knife in the video of him  chasing after a potential victim. Some saw him coming, some did not. The family of a woman who survived said she felt someone punching her in the back and then she saw the blood. A lifeguard, who heroically ran in to provide first aid, said that one victim was slashed on the back and another on the chest.

Today the family of the killer said that he was mentally ill. For whatever reason he killed we do not yet know but we do know that he was into guns and knives. The Premier of New South Wales said that had it not been for Australia’s tough gun laws hundreds would have been killed if the killer had gotten his hands on a gun particularly an automatic.

Yet during the 15 minutes or so of the rampage the killer managed to kill 6, injured 3 critically and another few injured but off the critical list.

Today’s report said that a Pakistani refugee who started work as a security guard on his first day at Westfield was the sole male victim who was killed as he attempted to stop the killer. A brave soul, RIP. A second security, a Muslim, was also injured.

For now we can but pray that the 3 who are critically injured recover. For now the investigation continues as the police try to piece together what happened. For now we can but mourn the loss of those whose life was suddenly cut short. Later the time will come to heal and move on.