He’s faced danger and saved many lives on the beach, but nothing prepared lovable Bondi Rescue star Andrew “Reidy” Reid for the carnage he witnessed when he went to buy his kids a bunk bed.
“I had a pretty good cry this morning,” he tells Woman’s Day, just two days after the Westfield Bondi Junction massacre that left six people dead, including his “beautiful” friend and running partner, Ashlee Good, 38.
Reidy, 44, was caught up in the attack after driving to Westfield to shop for a bunk bed for his two daughters and son, aged three to five years old, only to soon discover that a knifeman was on the loose.
And when he heard shots and saw bloodied bodies scattered on the floor of the shopping centre, this brave dad didn’t hesitate. “I could see a woman bleeding really badly and I thought I’ve just got to get down there and help,” says Reidy, who was safe, locked behind shuttered roller doors in Myer, before he insisted a security guard let him out so he could help the victims.
“When we heard the shots fired – bang, bang, bang – that’s when we knew how serious it was.”
BRAVE ACTIONS
Reidy first went to the aid of a woman near Lululemon, grabbing some clothing off shelves in Cotton On to help stem the bleeding, before helping two police officers who were trying to save the life of another woman. “I started doing CPR,” shares Reidy.
It was then that he noticed an abandoned pram near a woman who was also severely injured. He would later find out that the pram was left behind when his friend Ash and her nine-month-old daughter were rushed to hospital.
It was as he left the shopping centre, covered in blood and reeling from what he had witnessed, that Reidy found out the young mother and her little girl were both stabbed, with Ash later dying of her injuries.
He met Ash eight years ago through a mutual love of running when she signed up for the 440 Run Club, and he saw her just three weeks ago at a friend’s 30th birthday party.
“Ash was a beautiful soul, one of the nicest people you could ever meet, never had a bad word to say about anyone, just beautiful – it’s devastating,” Reidy says, revealing that the running group met two days after the attack to share their grief.
REMEMBERING HIS MATE
“I started to think about Ash… and everything that had happened in those 48 hours got the better of me and I had a good cry.”
There were four heroes who stood out to him that day, but none more so than Ash, who handed her baby to a stranger to help save her life.
“I think that’s an incredibly heroic act. I’ve got three kids, and for me to hand them to a stranger would be the hardest thing,” he says.
Reidy says Damien Guerot and his mate Silas Despreaux, who used bollards to stop the killer going up an escalator, were also extraordinarily brave. And he’s also in awe of “cool, calm and collected” Inspector Amy Scott, who shot and killed the knifeman.
“She’s a real hero. I just did first aid, which is what I’m trained to do,” he says.
Reidy, who had to return to the scene on Monday afternoon to pick up his car, says the ordeal has reminded him of just how precious life is.
“Just cherish life, don’t take life for granted. It showed that in the blink of an eye, someone can do something extremely stupid or malicious, and life can be gone. Value it and cherish it.”
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