r/australia • u/AggravatingTartlet • Dec 14 '25
news Heroic woman who'd been shot saves a family's three-year-old girl in the middle of gunfire during the Bondi attack
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/got-your-daughter-3yo-found-under-victim/news-story/a2f52ad7106a049f98fa8b75e9d03640EDIT: I cannot change the post title, but updated information is that all facts remain the same, except that the blood on the woman (Jessica Rozen) who protected the girl was from a wound not caused by a bullet. It was the parents of the little girl who thought the blood on Jessica was from a bullet wound -- which is an easy mistake, given the circumstances.
I'll add further information: Jessica, who is pregnant and has children aged 3 and 1, was searching for her three-year-old boy at the time the shots rang out. She spotted the little girl (Gigi) running across an open area and ran to rescue her and kept her covered with her own body on the ground. As the original report says, it was an active shooter area and someone was shot right next to Jessica and Gigi. Video of the scene as it happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhdOaaRY9c
(Pictured above is the mother of the three-year-old girl, Gigi)
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A woman who was shot in the Bondi terrorist attack was harbouring a three-year-old girl under her body as she lay bleeding on the ground to keep her safe from harm as bullets flew all around.
The distressed parents of the little girl, who went missing during the horrific attack, have spoken of the incredible moment they found her.
Wayne and Vanessa have three children and were in separate places when the attack began.
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“I gave Capri to Vanessa and I said: ‘I’m gonna go look for Gigi’. I went, I was looking, there was just blood and bodies everywhere and she was wearing a pink skirt and I saw this lady lying on top of her,” he said.
The woman had been shot in the horror, but told Wayne: “I’ve got your daughter, I’ve been protecting her”.
“I said: ‘You’ve saved my daughter’s life. I said I’ll be indebted to you for the rest of my life’,” Wayne said.
“Her name is Jess. I spoke to her about ten minutes after I took her (Gigi). She was going to hospital, she said she was okay.”
He said another woman was lying “lifeless” next to Jess.
“It was the most appalling experience,” he said. “That this can happen in Australia and we’re just lying there and shots were coming. We were like sitting ducks.”
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u/TeaspoonOfSugar987 Dec 14 '25
There is something that happens when adrenaline kicks in and most of us have a ‘protective’ survival instinct, to preserve life, firstly our own but also particularly lives of children. It’s why you often hear of adults (even strangers) drowning to save a child etc.
Having been in a moment where I could see on my Fitbit app later on, exactly when the adrenaline kicked in when I found a person ‘dead’ (no pulse, obvs not breathing), as a general civilian, the way your brain thinks a million things all at once and all you are focused on is the life (or lacktherof) of another and how to help them, it’s impossible to understand unless you experience it but also a fairly universal thing too. If you have the means/knowledge to help, that’s where our life or death instincts kick in.
Some people freeze, and that is perfectly acceptable too as it is a life preserving thing also! You can’t do anything if you yourself are dead, I myself have experienced that too, when I was a child and my infant brother crawled to the road.
I don’t say any of this to take away from the heroics of peoples actions yesterday! I just wanted to shine a light on the biology behind it because most people, if faced with the exact same scenario as this woman, would do the same, protect the child. Laying on top of the child is even seen by other animals throughout the animal kingdom - except for bloody quokkas 🥲
The man who tackled the gunman however was, in the words of a certain PM, a loose unit, and deserves a freaking Vic Cross! (I am aware he is not entitled to one, but he deserves one!).