The court was told he shot and killed Joel Cauchi after stabbing 16 people in a Sydney mall and believed she would be killed.

Six people were killed by schizophrenia patients on April 13, 2024 at Westfield Mall in Bondi Junction.

The first time the attack called police was at 3.34 pm, when Guanmeng inquired about the mass stabbing he heard on Tuesday.

Insp Amy Scott was the first to respond. The phone passed by her police car radio station at 3.35pm. "I remember the radio operator saying 'We got multiple calls, multiple stabs, multiple locations in Bondi Junction Westfield. I know that was very real."

Scott, a senior attorney who assisted in the investigation of Peggy Dwyer SC, said when she arrived in Westfield, her initial plan was to execute "dynamic entry" and other officials entered the center with multiple points.

But the number of people flooded from the mall forced her to change her plans. "Someone yelled at me," Scott said the second day of the scheduled five-week investigation.

She told the court she knew she was dealing with an active armed criminal.

"I know I can't wait for my colleagues to arrive and I just need to go in... It's my intention to try to find the threat," she said at Lidcombe Coroners Court.

She entered the center at 3.37 pm. Two civilians, Silas Desperaux and Damien Guerot - were called the "Balad Man" when he was on the escalator with Cauchi.

On the way up the escalator, one of them patted her on the back and said, "You are alone (no other police officers), we come with you."

She told them to stay behind her. "They're great," she said.

Scott found Cauchi holding a large saber at the top of the escalator. She uses her mouth and hand signals, but doesn't want to yell in Cauchi's earmuffs, who directs a woman with a stroller - hiding behind a large flower pot - to run. The official called on "partners" to get Kuch's attention. At 3.38 pm, she ordered him to put down the knife.

A few seconds later, Cauchi started to sail towards Scott at speed, who responded by firing a gun. When asked what happened when she opened the fire, she told the court: "He was going to kill me. It seemed very slow to me. I knew my first shot hit him, and that was because his body was shaking, but he continued to walk towards me."

She told him to "stop, give up." Asked was told that she "retreated" as Cage continued to move towards her, and then fired two more shots, Cage fell on the ground 6.5 meters away from her.

Five minutes and 43 seconds have passed since the attack began. Just a minute passed between Scott's arrival and the shot of shooting.

Scott told the court that she re-carved the weapon and went to Cauchi who was lying on the knife, but she wasn't sure if she had lost his power.

"I know I have to bite the bullet and keep the weapon safe," she said.

Seeing that he was incapacitated, she threw the knife away and placed him in the recovery position before providing assistance.

She then asked if there were other criminals and was told: "That's him, that's that guy." She said she said she was waiting with Cauchi while checking his pulse "feels like a year."

A bullet missed Cauchi and hit the potted plant that her mother had been hiding behind.

Scott didn’t carry a Taser and said that in this case, “absolutely not” is the right choice.

Scott said she felt sick when she met the mall, “because in my mind, I’ve resigned because I might be dying.”

She told the court that during active armed criminal training, police were told they had a 60-70% chance of being killed, "that's your chance to join forces."

Inspectors said in a 2016 training that she handled forced officials to move from a “containment, negotiation” approach to “don’t wait, go.” Scott said she was trained to “stop killing, stop dying.”

Through tears, she praised the courage and heroism of the police who participated that day.

Scott told the court that her colleagues, mall employees and bystanders saved lives and put themselves in danger.

Dewell told the court on Monday that the inspector's actions saved lives were "undisputed".

Shortly after 3.30 pm, Kuch entered Westfield Mall and began the attack just before 3.33 pm.

After "irritated" in the bakery, he removed the knife from his backpack and the 25-year-old fatally stabbed Dawn Singleton. The court heard the mother turned to see him and then attacked her nine-month-old baby, his stroller. When she stepped in to save the baby's life "without doubt", she was injured by another stab wound.

Cage immediately continued the attack, killing 30-year-old security guard Faraz Tahir, then Pikria Darchia, 55.

In the opening speech of senior legal counsel on Monday, the court heard that in the days and hours before the attack, Kuch searched online for serial killers and Columbine School shooters.