French national Damien Guerot, who has been dubbed the "Bollard Man," became Australia's latest heartthrob after bravely confronting a knife-wielding madman who unleashed a wave of violence in a mall last weekend.
Footage from the horrifying incident captured Damien arming himself with a plastic pole and stopping the assailant, identified as Joel Cauchi, 40, from making his way to the top of an escalator in the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center on Saturday, April 13.
“I saw a guy on the floor with a lot of blood, I saw one girl from the balcony get stabbed,” Damien told 7NEWS as he recalled the harrowing moments.
“She was just walking, she didn’t do anything,” he added.
Damien Guerot was captured on video blocking stabber Joel Cauchi from making his way up an escalator
Image credits: Matt Vandenberg
During the incident, Damien was filmed standing on top of the escalator with a bollard in his hand just a few feet away from Joel, who killed six innocent people and injured several others, including a baby. The mother of the 9-month-old baby had thrust her injured daughter into the arms of a stranger before succumbing to her wounds and becoming one of the six victims.
Joel’s stabbing spree came to an end after a responding officer, Amy Scott, confronted him and shot him to death.
Following the attack, Damien revealed that he and his friend Silas Despreaux were at the shopping center and on their way to the gym when the incident took place.
When they heard someone screaming that "there [was] a man stabbing people,” the pair ran and saw Joel approaching them, Damien recalled.
"We just saw him coming ... we were thinking, 'We need to try to stop him,'" he said.
Damien soon came face-to-face with the stabber and managed to block him from going up the escalator.
He was staring into "empty eyes," Damien said about the moment he stood a few feet away from the knife-wielding man
The French national recalled staring into the “empty eyes” of Joel as he stood a few steps away from him.
“He wasn’t there,” Damien said and added, “We tried to throw the bollard. We really wanted to stop him.”
Damien and Silas eventually saw Inspector Amy and helped lead her to Joel, who launched himself forward to attack the veteran officer. Amy then shot the stabber in the nick of time and brought the violent rampage to an end.
“She was the hero, she did the job. We just did what we did,” Damien said as he refused to call himself a hero.
However, most others believe Damien also counts as a hero worthy of praise for his display of bravery and potentially reducing further bloodshed during the incident.
Many even swooned over the hunky French man, with social media users thanking the Bollard Man for “being such a hero and giving people time to get away.”
People online praised the brave man, with some declaring: "Bollard Man is hot!"
“I wonder if #Bollardman knows how many of us want to give him a big hug. Him and all the other brave souls who helped put a stop to this mentally disturbed man,” one social media user wrote, while another quipped, "Bollard Man is hot! Mate if you need a spouse visa I’m available."
Australian officials also offered Damien the chance to stay in the country for as long as he wanted. The French man was in the country on a work visa that was set to expire in a month or two. But after the stabbing at the mall, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced to the country that his visa applications would be resolved soon.
The Australian Prime Minister said Damien could stay in the country for as long as he wanted to
“I say this to Damien Guerot, who is dealing with his visa application, that you are welcome here,” Anthony said in a Tuesday statement.
"You are welcome to stay for as long as you like, this is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen," he added.
The actions of bystanders like Damien showed “the best of human character” during the horrific incident.
“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 onto another floor and potentially inflicting further carnage on citizens,” Anthony said.