Lindt siege inquiry: Katrina Dawson hit seven times as she tried to hide amid gunfight

HOSTAGE Katrina Dawson was hit by seven police bullet fragments — with 55 particles peppering her body — in the bloody shootout that ended the Lindt cafe siege.

CCTV showing the moment the tactical operations unit storm the Lindt cafe in Martin Place killing Man Haron Monis.

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HOSTAGE Katrina Dawson was hit by seven police bullet fragments — with 55 particles peppering her body — in the bloody shootout that ended the Lindt cafe siege.

The mother-of-three’s horrific final moments, hiding under a chair in darkness as police fired at terrorist Man Monis, were revealed in gut-wrenching evidence to the siege inquest yesterday.

Monis was shot four times and one of the raiding officers was wounded by ricocheting police bullets — possibly his own.

Tactical police outside the Lindt Cafe during the siege. Picture: Gordon McComiskie

Katrina Dawson was struck numerous times by fragments of police bullets. Picture: Supplied

Ballistic experts found Ms Dawson, a 38-year-old barrister, was struck in the right shoulder, right upper back, left shoulder, left upper back, upper back neck area and twice in the right side of her neck — and that she may have been writhing in agony on the floor.

The final terrifying moments that brought the siege to an end at 2.13am on December 16, 2014, have been recreated by ballistics experts who matched fragments of bullets to the guns that fired them, the inquest heard yesterday.

Ms Dawson died after Man Monis shot dead cafe manager Tori Johnson. It is the first time the extent of Ms Dawson’s wounds has been outlined.

The two Tactical Operations Unit officers, codenamed Officers A and B, who stormed the cafe believing Monis had a bomb, were armed with semiautomatic M4 carbines with 55-grain .223 Winchester bullets.

Video shot during the stand-off shows police in Martin Place.

Officer A fired 17 rounds and Officer B fired five as they ran into the cafe through the Phillip St entrance. Monis, who was at the northwest corner of the cafe near the Martin Place foyer exit, fired his sawn-off shotgun five times.

Ms Dawson was in the corner close to Monis and was found still alive, lying face down. She died later. One of the chairs she hid under was hit 10 times in a downward direction — eight times through the leatherette back to the front of the chair, one to the side and one through a timber leg, ballistics expert Lucas Van der Walt said. Timber fragments were found on her clothing.

Police would storm the Lindt Cafe with flashbang stun grenades and a hail of gunfire.

Counsel for Ms Dawson’s family, Michael O’Connell SC, suggested she may have been in pain, moving her body side to side and struck again and again by fragments from more than one bullet.

A social media shot of slain hostage Katrina Dawson. Picture: Supplied

Mr Van der Walt said he thought it was only one bullet that fragmented and the inquest heard 55 “grains” were taken from her wounds.

He said he believed Monis was hit with four intact bullets, at least two in the head.

But the inquest heard the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem on Monis’ body reported he had been hit by between seven and nine intact bullets.

Officer B was hit in the cheek and thigh from fragments of copper-jacketed police bullets, perhaps his own, which ricocheted after the front counter glass was blown out. Three of the other remaining hostages were also treated for gunshot wounds.

The tactical commander in charge at the police forward command post had said it would have been safer if they could have entered the cafe at a time of their choosing, taking Monis by storm, but that plan was not approved..

They could only enter the cafe following the death or serious injury or the imminent death or ­serious injury to a hostage.