Parents recall panic as they lost track of daughter during Bondi attack

2 days ago 7

Wayne and Vanessa Miller were astatine the lawsuit astatine Australia's celebrated Bondi Beach connected Sunday with their 2 daughters, and they said it was a joyful, peaceful lawsuit to observe the commencement of the Jewish vacation of Hanukkah, until it was shattered by 2 gunmen firing indiscriminately into the crowd.

"They were giving retired donuts, and determination was look coating and determination was music, the kids were conscionable having an implicit ball," Wayne Miller told "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King connected Monday.

Then, lasting successful a enactment with girl Capri, Wayne heard what helium archetypal thought was a firecracker. Then determination was different crack, and helium realized it was gunfire.

"My girl was successful beforehand of me. I conscionable turned, I grabbed her, and I conscionable saw a array and I conscionable dived nether this array and I conscionable laic connected apical of my girl Capri," helium recalled. "I was conscionable lying connected apical of her, conscionable shielding her."

"The bullets were conscionable going off, radical screaming and moving and running. About 2 limb lengths from me, determination was a feline changeable connected the level who was screaming, 'help, help!'" Miller recalled.

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As rounds flew overhead, his woman called him, and they rapidly realized they had mislaid way of their different small girl, Gigi, successful the chaos.

"Vanessa calls maine and says, 'Have you got the girls?' I'm like, 'I've got Capri. I'm connected apical of Capri. Where's Gigi? Gigi, you're with Gigi. Where's Gigi?' She said, 'No, I'm not with Gigi. Where's Gigi?' And astatine this stage, I thought, okay, I request to look for her, and I stuck my caput retired from nether the array to look up into the field. And idiosyncratic shouted, 'There's gunshots!' I conscionable heard gunshots. And the feline said, Get down, get down, get down. And I conscionable thought, 'I conscionable request to hold and support my small Capri.'"

"It was terrifying," said Vanessa. "I'm screaming and the gunshots are going and I'm trying to run."

She said she adjacent tried to drawback a constabulary officer's weapon astatine 1 point, "to prevention much lives."

"I've got thing to lose. I've gotta go, I've gotta go," the parent thought. "I felt hopeless. I looked, I was watching the full thing. I conscionable spot radical connected the ground. I called my parent and I said, 'Gigi's dead. Gigi is dead, Gigi's dead.' I conscionable knew she was dormant … What does a three-year-old know? Three-year-old erstwhile gunshots are going, but you deliberation they're gonna driblet to the crushed and instrumentality cover? No. I conscionable knew she'd beryllium moving astir screaming. She was an casual target."

Wayne yet recovered his wife, handed their girl Capri implicit to Vanessa, and past acceptable retired to look for Gigi.

"I ran backmost into the tract to look for Gigi, and I was looking amongst the humor and the bodies and I recovered my small miss lying underneath this beauteous hero, an implicit brave hero, Jess. She was shielding my small babe from the gunshots," helium told CBS News. "It was the astir peculiar infinitesimal of my beingness to find her, and I took her fig and I said, 'Jess, convey you. You're an implicit brave hero. You're an implicit superhero."

Vanessa Miller said Jess continued shooting video of the attackers adjacent arsenic she laid down implicit the Gigi to support her, "and you could spot the feline connected the bridge, shooting astatine her. Shooting towards her."

Miller said she'd asked her hubby whether helium felt the lawsuit was harmless conscionable 15 minutes earlier the onslaught started, noting what seemed to her to beryllium precise fewer information unit successful the area.

"There were lone 2 policemen there," Vanessa said. "I didn't consciousness safe. I said to him, 'I don't consciousness safe.'"

The mates were highly captious of Australia's government, accusing officials of having "done thing to support the Jewish communities" successful the state successful the look of rising antisemitism.

Police should person been connected precocious alert, fixed that it was a Hanukkah solemnisation and antisemitic threats and attacks person skyrocketed successful Australia since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught connected Israel that sparked the warfare successful Gaza, according to information from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

According to information compiled by the council, antisemitic incidents successful Australia stay astatine historically precocious levels — astir 5 times the mean yearly fig seen earlier Oct. 7, 2023.

Police officials successful New South Wales authorities said astatine slightest 15 radical were killed and 40 others remained successful section hospitals pursuing what Australian leaders person called an antisemitic attack.

The suspects were a begetter and son. They had six firearms — legally owned by the 50-year-old begetter — and had assembled an improvised explosive device, each allegedly to people the Jewish gathering, according to Australian authorities.

"It was crushed zero," Ben Ferguson, among the exigency responders to scope the scene, told CBS News. "We were each there, and ended up carrying bodies into the street."

Ferguson, a lifeguard astatine the section Bondi surf club, said members of the nine were among the archetypal to supply aesculapian attraction to radical wounded successful the shooting, and helium said they started doing truthful arsenic soon arsenic the gunfire stopped. "We realized it was a wide shooting lawsuit erstwhile idiosyncratic screamed that the gunman was reloading, and past we conscionable knew that we were wholly vulnerable."

"There was a truly large feeling … a changeless paranoia that a weaponry was gonna spell off. And we didn't cognize wherever the gunmen were," Ferguson told CBS News connected Monday. "The Surf nine has a batch of aesculapian resources ourselves, and truthful determination was a batch of moving implicit and delivering oxygen tanks."

Friends and household wage tribute to slain Rabbi Eli Schlanger

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told CBS News helium believes a last-minute determination to not be the Hanukkah lawsuit saved his life.

"For the past 10 years, the rabbi has invited maine to talk and to convey a message. And this year, for the archetypal time, I didn't be - I had my oldest daughter's champion friend's bat mitzvah, truthful I was determination else," helium said.

"The rabbi who invited me, who was a beloved dear person of mine, who I would person been lasting adjacent to, was among the slaughtered," Ryvchin told CBS News.

The co-CEO paid tribute to Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was 1 of the organizers of the event, calling him an "extraordinary quality being." Ryvchin said Schlanger's enactment crossed the authorities of New South Wales included helping the underprivileged and visiting radical hospitalized with terminal illnesses.

Schlanger's brother-in-law, Rabbi Mendel Kastel, was besides astatine the lawsuit with his family.

"The past 24 hours is really, truly difficult," Kastel told CBS News connected Monday. "You know, losing a brother-in-law, you know, a household member, truthful I'm straight affected. But astatine the aforesaid time, I've got a relation successful the assemblage supporting others. It's been truly difficult."

Kastel lauded Schlanger arsenic "an astonishing young man, a idiosyncratic who was committed to his work."

"He was committed to the community. People loved him. Wherever helium went helium took existent involvement successful radical and radical took a existent involvement successful him. He would sojourn radical successful hospitals, he'd sojourn radical successful prisons, helium would thatch people, helium would thatch barroom mitzvahs. He would animate different rabbis with his enthusiasm, his positivity," Kastel said.

Shalom, a 20-year-old antheral from Miami who has been surviving successful Bondi, told CBS News his person was inactive hospitalized connected Monday aft being changeable portion adjacent Schlanger.

"From what I've heard helium was with the rabbi and different policeman, and each 3 of them got shot," Shalom said. "My person … helium got changeable twice, helium got changeable 1 successful the stomach, came out, went out, and 1 successful the leg."

"We were astatine the infirmary the full nighttime past night, and we were with him, praying, conscionable being determination for him and helium was connected a breathing tube. They did a country and they said it [the bullet] deed 1 of his bowels and they fixed it up, and said he's stable, convey God," Shalom added.

Grieving residents surviving successful Bondi, a confederate suburb of Sydney, came unneurotic Monday to laic flowers and mourn the dormant pursuing the shooting attack.

For Rabbi Kastel, it's that assemblage tone that's the essence of what Hanukkah symbolizes.

"We privation to shine, we privation to airy those candles together, we wanna enactment our arms astir each different and truly physique a due Australian assemblage wherever radical consciousness valued, radical consciousness loved, and radical consciousness cared for," helium said.