HEROES WIN Bystanders tackle alleged killer

How a bunch of city workers stopped a potential massacre

ALERTED by the screams of pedestrians, office workers armed with a milk crate and chairs joined forces with passing firefighters to detain a deranged man wielding a bloody 30cm knife on a rampage through Sydney’s CBD yesterday.

Police suspect the blood-covered man had slashed the throat of a sex worker before stabbing another woman on the street as he yelled at bystanders to kill him.

“We just ran in,” said Paul O’Shaughnessy, who heard the commotion from his office in a nearby building. “We just got the troops. We said, ‘All right, come on, let’s go and see if we can help.’ So we ran towards him.”

Westpac IT manager Jamie Ingram was also nearby, and swept up a cane chair from a cafe — with which he tackled the man.

It emerged last night the stabber was Mert Ney, 21, who has a history of mental health problems, homelessness and drug use.

THEY were alerted by the commotion – IT workers, traffic controllers and firies – who yesterday stepped up to tackle a deranged man wielding a bloody knife in the heart of Sydney’s CBD.

Last night, it emerged that the accused man, Mert Ney, may have absconded from a mental facility and allegedly murdered a woman in an apartment block in nearby Clarence St.

He emerged from the block and attacked another woman outside the Clarence St cycle shop before heading into King St. The screams and commotion shattered the end of the normal CBD lunch hour.

Up in his fourth-floor recruitment business on King St Paul O’Shaughnessy heard the commotion and he and his younger brother Luke bolted out of the office to help.

Outside, the knife-wielding man, his clothes covered in blood, had jumped on the bonnet of a Mercedes and was screaming at passers by.

“Shoot me, f--king shoot me in the f--king head, shoot me. I want to f--king die,” he yelled before jumping off the bonnet as his pursuers warily tracked him.

“Not saying we were heroes or anything, but people were actually very scared going that way, and we just ran in,” Paul said. “If somebody like that isn’t restrained or stopped or at least challenged, he’s just going to continue to do what he’s doing.”

IT manager Simon Finch was jogging down King St when he saw the commotion and joined Paul and Luke and others including a number of firemen.

“There were five or six of us all chasing him,” he said. “I followed him down Clarence St, Barrack St and Wynyard St, he was shouting some things that were praising Allah.

“I was just shouting to people to get out of the way.”

Advertising account director Michael Appleby joined the pursuit. “We saw him turn off to Barrack St and there were cars stopped at a red light. He went to stab someone, one of the drivers, but they had the window up.

“He kept running down, he kept yelling out Allahu Akbar, turned on to Wynyard St and dumped a whole bunch of pills,” he said.

That was when Wespac IT manager Jamie Ingram swept up a cafe chair and wielded it at the man, constantly wary of the bloody 30cm blade the man carried.

“All I wanted to do was stop him and put him on the ground,” he said. While Mr Ingram was concerned for the safety of others the knifeman was wary of him.

“He wasn’t saying anything he was just looking at me wondering what I was going to do,” he said. Mr Ingram got close

enough to tackle him with the chair.

Traffic controller Steven Georgiadis had been working when he heard people shouting “stop, stop, stop” and saw the man on the ground. Video shows the attacker on the floor, pinned by a chair and a milk crate on his head, as a furious man screams at him: “Do you know there are people you just stabbed … you stabbed a chick mate.”

“Stop, stop, stop, wait for the cops,” says another of the everyday heroes before asking what the bloodied man on the ground has done. “He just stabbed a chick in broad daylight,” he was told before another said: “Watch his hands.”

Afterwards NSW Police Superintendent Gavin Wood praised the men.

“I want to acknowledge those members of the public who got involved. They were significantly brave people.”

The bunch of everyday Aussie heroes who were also highly praised by Prime Minister Scott Morrison who tweeted: “The attacker is now in police custody following the brave actions of those who were present at the scene.”

“Do you know there are people you just stabbed … you stabbed a chick mate.”