‘HEROES OF THE HIGHEST ORDER’

Bystanders tackle stabber

HAILED as “heroes of the highest order”, bystanders chased a knife-wielding man on a stabbing rampage in Sydney’s CBD yesterday before wrestling him to the ground and pinning him down with chairs and a milk crate.

The 21-year-old is accused of killing a young woman in an apartment before stabbing a 41-year-old woman at the Hotel CBD.

Detectives allege Mert Ney then tried to stab others as he wandered the streets.

Witness Paul O’Shaughnessy said his brother, 30-yearold Luke, saw the knifewielding man covered in blood jump on to a car soon after 2pm and start yelling.

“We were like, ‘Wow, what’s going on here’,” the shaken 37-year-old said.

The pair, with several colleagues, raced outside and chased the man down.

“For us, it was just about restraining him,” Paul O’Shaughnessy said. “My brother, he was the hero. He got a grip of him, along with another guy we don’t know, and put a crate on his head. He was just mumbling religious things.”

Mr O’Shaughnessy said he was “very rattled” but proud of his brother and the other man.

“There was a very big crowd, but they were the ones who restrained the guy and just got a grip so he didn’t do any more damage,” he said.

“We managed to wait until the police came and they did a fantastic job. My brother continued to keep him down just in case, which is very brave.”

Video footage shows a number of men in pursuit. One, Jamie Ingram, said he did not think of his own safety.

“I followed him up York St trying to get him to focus on me rather than anyone else,” Mr Ingram told the Nine Network.

“There are lots of pedestrians there, and I didn’t want him to sort of lash out at them. I wasn’t scared, I was just focused on what I was doing.”

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the men were heroes “of the highest order”.

“Three members of the public, who can only be described as heroes of the highest order, have engaged this 21-year-old man and have placed him essentially under arrest even though he was brandishing a large butchers knife and was clearly dangerous,” Mr Fuller said.

Superintendent Gavin Wood said the men’s intervention had stopped other people being hurt.

“These people are heroes,” Supt Wood said. “These members of the public have jumped into a situation which was extremely dangerous, extremely hostile and they brought a person who we will be alleging stabbed an innocent person for no specific reason into custody and allowed us to do our job.”

Numerous videos of the man’s rampage have emerged, including footage showing a bystander holding a chair confronting the man, who was yelling: “Shoot me, f---ing shoot me in the f---ing head.”

Seven Network cameraman Paul Walker — who filmed Mr Ney being detained — said the man was “full of blood”.

“The guy with the knife just kept running and stopping and running and stopping,” Mr Walker said. “Someone grabbed a milk crate and smacked it over his head.”

Mr Ney was in police custody in hospital last night.

The 41-year-old woman was taken to hospital in a stable condition with a stab wound to her back.