Bourke Street massacre caps off Melbourne’s long day of horror
WHEN the first sign of the carnage that would unfold on the streets of Melbourne came in the early hours of Friday, nobody could have known what was to come.
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THE first sign of the carnage that would unfold on the streets of Melbourne came in the early hours of yesterday.
Police were alerted to a brawl between two men outside a house in Raleigh St, Windsor.
One had been stabbed in the altercation but by the time officers arrived both had fled.
In the pouring rain, the victim had taken himself to a hospital. The second man was nowhere to be seen.
It was reported as a stand-alone incident. Nobody could have known what was to come.
In a twist that would only become apparent later, the man police were hunting would actually be seen trying to interrupt Channel 9 news reporter Neary Ty during a live cross from the scene at 8am.
“He pulled up in his car on the wrong side of the road,” Ty said. “He was rambling and yelling things out.
“He drove off but then came back as we were packing up.”
Three hours later the same man was spotted behind the wheel of the maroon Commodore, tearing down tram tracks in Clarendon St, South Melbourne. A critical incident police van was driving about 10 seconds behind, its lights and siren not in use.
“He was going fast, quite fast,” witness Chris Kaias said.
“Everybody turned to watch this car fly down the tram tracks.”
Police would later say they attempted to arrest the driver at the South Wharf intersection.
Witnesses also saw a woman jump from the car but the man continued on.
Pictures appear to show the woman in handcuffs at the end of Montague St, below the West Gate Freeway.
Authorities said later the police air wing had already been diverted to the scene.
The man headed west and was next spotted driving erratically between traffic on Williamstown Rd, just before Somerville Rd and Anderson St in Yarraville.
There another person described hearing the man yell out after he was approached to see if he was okay.
“Armageddon is coming,’’ he apparently screamed. “The end of the world’s going to come today. Watch the news.”
Other witness reports in the two hours that followed were scarce. But police said yesterday the man was still in their sights as he drove back into the city.
At 1.30pm he began doing doughnuts at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets. Several cars were diverted from his vehicle as he leaned from the window, pointing his finger and screaming incoherently.
A tram slowed to avoid a collision. Hundreds of bystanders watched on as he continued to drive in circles.
Some pulled out their phones to record the madness.
One of the city’s famous horse-and-carts was also positioned at the intersection as the drama unfolded.
Carriage driver Jessica Kershaw said the man was shouting our bizarre phrases.
“People were trying to stop him,” she said.
“He was aiming for everyone, he was constantly shouting, hanging out of the car, pointing his finger.”
Police could be seen watching on from the footpath before the vehicle veered out of its loop and on to Swanston St. Several unmarked police cars followed only metres behind.
The car could then be seen trying to turn into Little Collins St but was prevented by the traffic bollards.
It was then that the car mounted the kerb and continued down the footpath, which was bustling with pedestrians.
Police say at least 20 people were injured after the car veered into Bourke St.
Last night at least four were confirmed dead, including a child, at different locations.
The car then careered at high speed across Elizabeth St, making it another 200m up Bourke St before police vehicles rammed it outside the RACV Club.
Officers opened fire, shooting the man in the arm before dragging him from the driver’s seat on to the pavement.
Handcuffed, he was stripped down to his underwear and could be seen grimacing on the ground, a trail of chaos and carnage behind him. The bodies of the dead and injured were strewn every 20 paces.
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Shock sets in after CBD carnage
LORD Mayor Robert Doyle stopped his press conference on the Swanston St balcony of Town Hall. The buzz of a police helicopter overhead was drowning out his latest thoughts on the city’s homelessness problem.
Doyle, looking shocked, did the only thing he could — wait until it passed.
Yet the chopper did not move on. Doyle’s city faced a bigger problem than the homeless. It was about to be shut down.
Blood-soaked bandages and water bottles would later map the path of what happened next, from Swanston St to William St, where a crumpled pram lay, its innards spilling on to the footpath.
The city had been cleaved in two. South was separated from north.
Pedestrians gathered at the streams of crime tape along Bourke St and wondered at the stories of carnage.
How office workers tried to wave down a crazy car. How they performed CPR on the dying who, moments earlier, had been going to get a coffee or lunch.
Overhead, news helicopters filmed a car battered by collisions with countless pedestrians.
At Elizabeth St, crowds parted for victims being stretchered to ambulances. The spectators took photos and compared updates.
At Queen St, they pointed at a blood-soaked towel and tried not to think about the poor victims who explained its place.
Couriers stopped delivering. Workers went home.
Police explained how people could work around the cordoned area, their calm belying the confusion of the earlier afternoon.
Shoppers wandered down the road of Little Collins St, now liberated of the usual jam of cars.
Few pedestrians carried shopping bags. There were no car horns, nor the roar of motorbikes. Trams did not tinkle.
No one had to be anywhere anymore, it seemed.
The usual bustle had been replaced by a collective torpor. One dead, the rumours went. Then it was three dead, including a child. Late last night that became four.
Each piece of news struck like a flicker in a city’s pulse. The winds gathered at William St, where the stains of loss had yet to dry, and elm leaves mixed with the discarded wrapping of hastily applied bandages.
Moments after Doyle stopped his press conference, a maroon Commodore had zoomed past.
Gathered reporters watched as it mounted the footpath at Little Collins St, then turned left at Bourke St. Police sirens and lights trailed.
Stefano Pavan had watched events moments earlier, as the car had done doughnuts in Melbourne’s busiest intersection.
He had been one of many, as footage would later show, who wondered at the odd show of dissent.
Pavan stood at Elizabeth and Collins an hour later, gathering a new crowd each time he told his story.
The driver was yelling, he said, as if taunting the police into action. Boasting a moon boot for a broken leg, Pavan was close enough to know: on one of the circuits, the car veered within two or three metres of the Italian.
Victoria Police was swift to dismiss any terrorist motive for what followed next, alluding to a domestic dispute and stabbing in Windsor hours earlier.
But Belgian sisters Marie Pauline and Louise Desset were reminded of events in Europe. They spoke of Berlin and Nice.
Marie Pauline, living in Melbourne, was still shaking as she recalled how a man was struck in Bourke St Mall.
The car was not moving fast, she said, but its place on the walkway caught everyone unawares.
Louise glimpsed the driver. He was calm, she said, and smoking a cigarette.
The car, it seems, accelerated through the intersection of Queen St.
Here, Minhaz Mohammed was still in shock as he told his story over and over. People hadn’t had time to scream, he said.
Two men and two women were hit. A man, legs shattered, was carried on the bonnet for 30-50 metres.
A woman, unconscious and bleeding internally, was the worst injured.
Mohammed kept returning to a piece of green luggage being skittled, as if that was better to remember than people being hit.
The shock set in immediately, Mohammed said. One witness began vomiting: others screamed, many cried. He rushed to help, as did others, despite his desire to flee the trauma. He was lucky: waiting to cross Bourke St, only a change of lights saved him from being in the path of a car he estimated at a speed of 60-70kmh. “It’s a moment of helplessness, you couldn’t do anything,” he said of the aftermath.
Meanwhile, Keristina Meanwad lingered at the Elizabeth St police tape. The Egyptian, of Doveton, witnessed and feared many acts of random violence before moving to Australia five years ago.
She would later hear about a 26-year-old man with a history of drug issues and violence. Right now, she felt transported back in time. She asked the question that every Melburnian was asking.
“Why, for what?” she asked, pointing at a line of ambulances. “These people, they were happy. Why kill them? For what?”