Dying mom entrusts injured baby to strangers

Sydney – In the midst of a Sydney mall stabbing rampage, witnesses say a fatally wounded mother handed over her injured nine-month-old baby to a stranger to save the infant’s life.

Stories of courage are still emerging from Saturday’s attack, in which a 40-year-old knifeman with mental illness roamed the packed shopping centre, killing six people and seriously wounding a dozen others.

Lone senior police officer Amy Scott is being hailed for tracking down, and then shooting dead the assailant during his killing spree.

One young man was filmed fending off the attacker on an escalator, armed only with a shopping centre bollard.

Storekeepers opened their doors to shelter frightened shoppers.

But the harrowing story of 38-year-old mother Ashlee Good’s desperate final act to save her baby daughter Harriet has struck a chord with many shocked Australians.

Witnesses told local media she was heard screaming when the assailant approached her in the shopping complex.

“The baby got stabbed,” one man at the scene with his brother told Channel 9 News in the aftermath of the attack.

“The mom got stabbed and the mom came over with the baby and threw it at me.”

Within hours of the attack, police said the toll had climbed to six after Good died in hospital.

Her baby is still in “a serious but stable condition” in hospital, New South Wales police assistant commissioner Anthony Cooke said yesterday.

In a statement to Australian media, Good’s family described her as “a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all round outstanding human and so much more”.

“To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not – words cannot express our gratitude,” they said.

Sky News Australia reporter Laura Jayes was near tears as she revealed on air she knew the sixth victim, who she described as an “incredible athlete”.

“I can tell you that it was a mother, a mother in the prime of her life, a new mother with a nine-month-old baby,” she said.

“I can’t imagine her needing to hand over the most precious thing in her life.

“Her baby went to surgery and her mom didn’t make it. So that’s really hard news to take.

“And I am bringing you that not knowing about the other five victims. But there’s one victim I do know about. And it’s just so cruel.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the courage displayed by “ordinary Australians” in the attack.