First Sydney stabbing victim was young mum who died ‘trying to save her baby’
Her last action was to give her baby to a stranger and begged them to save her.
A brave young mum who threw her baby to a stranger moments before being fatally stabbed has been named as the first victim of the Sydney stabbing attack.
Dr Ashlee Good, 38, was pushing her nine-month-old baby Harriet through the Westfield Shopping Centre when the attacker stabbed her in her pram, The Daily Telegraph reports.
With her last breath, Dr Good thrust the bleeding infant into the arms of a passing stranger and begged them to save her baby, before she fell victim to the knifeman’s crazed rampage and died from her wounds in hospital.
Baby Harriet is currently in critical condition at Sydney’s St Vincent’s hospital, and is believed to have gone through surgery while medics fight to save the infant’s life.
‘The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me, and I was just holding the baby,’ one of a pair of brothers told 9News.
‘I just helped out, just holding the baby and trying to compress the baby, and same with the mother, trying to compress the blood from stopping [sic] and calling the ambulance and police.
‘There was a lot of blood on the floor.’
‘We just kept yelling out to get some clothes to help us compress and stop the baby bleeding,’ he said.
Another witness told local media: ‘She handed us the baby and said “please help, help.”
‘She was bleeding from her head, her face … the baby was bleeding,’ he added.
A total of nine people, including Dr Good’s daughter, suffered knife wounds after a 40-year-old man went on a terrifying stabbing spree at the Bondi Junction shopping centre before being shot dead by a lone female police officer.
Just hours before she was stabbed, Dr Good posted a picture of herself on Instagram holding the baby in her arms.
‘Only because I was walking past and happened to be wearing the same thing 9 months out vs 9 months in etc etc,’ the caption read.
She also posted a short video of her daughter sitting in a car seat with the Temptations song My Girl overlayed.
Ashlee worked as an osteopath, and was a highly regarded figure in her field. She had just returned to work after taking seven months off for maternity leave.
Journalist Laura Jayes told Sky News the mother was a ‘beautiful person, a wonderful athlete’ and described her husband and family members rushing to hospital.
‘She is just such an incredible person, she’s one of those all-rounders, and incredible athlete.
‘She was so excited to be a new mother and it’s all just been ripped away this afternoon.’
Just 12 weeks after her daughter was born, Dr Good posted a heartfelt message to social media about being a mother.
‘It’s almost too much to put into words. The love. The happiness. The fears. The new world. The new me; one that I’m still discovering as I enter motherhood and complete the so-called fourth trimester.’
‘It’s like experiencing your heart swell with love whilst navigating anxiety for the first time.
‘Feeling so proud, and then so overwhelmed. The dichotomy of it all.
‘Pure joy and extraordinary exhaustion blended with emotions you’ve never felt before.’
She went on to say that it’s a parent is ‘the most outstandingly beautiful gift one can ever receive’.
‘Sitting here feeling so deeply thankful, and still pinching myself she’s ours.
‘I love her so much.’
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