Monash University shooting: How these heroes stopped gunman Huan Yun Xiang’s planned massacre
WHEN this professor heard gunshots ring out, he opened a door to a scene of horror. And then instinct kicked in to stop a killer student armed to the teeth.
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IT was a surpisingly surreal image — rather than a chaotic one — that confronted Monash University econometrics lecturer Brett Inder as he opened the door on the shooting scene.
Having heard gunshots ring out down the corridor, Prof Inder had gone to investigate.
What he saw still stays with him today.
“It was actually a fairly quiet scene - there were a couple of people who were just sitting in their chairs who’d obviously been shot dead,” the professor recalled during an interview with the Herald Sun.
“And (there were) a few people lying on the floor who’d been shot and were seriously injured.”
The only apparent movement was happening in the corner of the intimate tutorial room, where a life and death struggle was underway.
It was 13 years ago this week when Monash honours student Huan Yun Xiang went gun crazy on campus, killing two fellow students and wounding four other victims including a lecturer.
The death toll could have been much worse had it not been for the brave actions of staff and a student who decided to fight instead of take flight.
It was during a tutorial about 11.15am on October 21, 2002, that Xiang, 36, stood up on his desk, raised one of several handguns he had with him and began to scan the small room.
His brilliant mind had snapped under the weight of self-expectation, frustration and paranoia.
Due to language difficulties and an inability to express himself or be understood, the Chinese-born Monash economics expert felt ostracised from his fellow students at the Clayton campus.
Hatred and jealousy had been festering in his head for some time, with whispers driving him to kill.
That morning he’d strapped himself with guns for a university rampage.
Now was the time to execute it.
The small sixth-floor tutorial room in the Robert Menzies Building was full of students.
Lecturer Lee Gordon-Brown was running the class when Xiang — suffering paranoid delusions — unleashed his frustration along with 16 rounds from a semi-automatic handgun.
“You never understand me!” Xiang yelled as he pulled repeatedly on the trigger.
Prof Inder was in his office down the hallway when he and a colleague heard the gunfire.
“We heard the bangs and we thought ‘That’s weird, that sounds like building works and someone’s dropped some pieces of timber,’” Prof Inder told the Herald Sun.
“There were quite a few shots and a couple of seconds later we heard people yelling and screaming in the corridor.
“We soon realised this was not building works and something bad had happened.”
Prof Inder did not know it at the time, but he was soon to become one of several campus heroes.
Back in the classroom, Xiang took aim on student Xu (William) Wu sitting in front of him.
For some reason, Wu was the focus of Xiang’s fury and frustration.
In a letter Xiang had typed out before he left his room that morning, he referred to Mr Wu as “WW”.
The note, found taped to Xiang’s wardrobe, read in part: “Just pick up a gun, kill all those WWs, until there is no WW in the world any more!
“To kill WWs is the responsibility defined in my destiny.”
As students screamed and dived for cover, Xiang shot Mr Wu and fellow student Steven Chan.
Both were aged 26.
Four other students, aged between 21 and 23, and Dr Gordon-Brown, 44, were hit and wounded.
“He (Xiang) just stood up in the back of the class and let rip,’’ a student in a tutorial room across the hall later told the Herald Sun.
“We were probably going to be next. We put our tables in front of the door. It may not have stopped him from coming in but it may have given us a chance to jump on him.’’
Xiang paused to reload his pistol or grab another, placing a hand inside his jacket pocket.
It was then the wounded Dr Gordon-Brown and a student tutor, Alastair Boast, reacted and pounced on him.
“I just grabbed his hands through his parka,’’ Dr Gordon-Brown would later say in court.
The two men wrestled Xiang and pinned him.
It helped that Mr Boast was a kung fu expert.
As Dr Gordon-Brown kept hold of Xiang’s legs and Mr Boast pinned his arms to a desk, the gunman kept repeating: “It was all I could do ... It was all I could do.’’
At about this time Prof Inder had reacted to students’ screams and taken a look inside the tutorial room.
“I saw a couple of students who were dead and two or three other people lying on the floor who appeared to be seriously wounded,” Prof Inder told the Herald Sun.
“In the corner of the room I saw Lee and Alastair holding the gunman down, pinning him against the wall, basically.”
Prof Inder rang security, then returned to help restrain the gunman.
“Lee (and Alastair) were holding the guy down and Lee said, ‘I’m struggling here, can you come and help’ ... so I went in and took Lee’s place,” Prof Inder recalled.
“Lee had been shot twice and was not in a great way. He was then able to sit on the floor and someone attended to him.”
According to Prof Inder, he and Mr Boast restrained Xiang for up to 40 minutes before police and paramedics made their way cautiously up to the sixth floor.
“There was a fair bit of confusion as to what had actually happened,” he said.
“The police worked their way carefully through the building rather than just coming straight up.
“There were periods where he (the gunman) struggled a bit ... He got a bit worked up and started carrying on about things.”
The two uni men and a colleague stripped Xiang of his weapons — he had four more handguns and a knife strapped to his belt.
“Initially, the only gun we knew of was the gun that (he’d dropped) on the floor,” Prof Inder said.
“We’d been holding him down for a few minutes and it occurred to me that maybe he might have more than one gun.”
Prof Inder said he was surprised at the number of handguns Xiang had hidden.
“That was a bit of a shock to us. That was a pretty scary moment, to think ‘S---, this could have been really ugly if he’d just been allowed to keep going.
“(I thought) these guys, Lee and Alastair, had just managed to avert a bigger disaster.”
Prof Inder said his efforts equated to moral support as the dust settled.
“Alastair is a big strong bloke ... and he wasn’t letting go of that bloke (the gunman) under any circumstances,” he said.
“I’m not really a particularly scary person and I’m not very strong or anything — so I was pretty much there for moral support. Just a bit of a calming influence.
“When the gunman got a bit worked up and started waffling on about stuff I just said to him, ‘It’s ok, there’s no point worrying about this or that. Let’s just sit here calmly. The police are on their way and nothing’s going to change.’”
Students helped the injured until police and paramedics arrived.
Mr Wu and Mr Chan were dead, and rounds had tagged the four injured students and Dr Gordon-Brown in different parts of their bodies.
Large crowds gathered outside the Menzies building as news of the gunman’s capture spread.
Xiang’s name circulated quickly, along with descriptions: he was said to be a frustrated loner with a short fuse who muttered away in the back corner in class.
He’d emigrated from China in 1996, and lived with his mother.
Senior police praised the heroic men who jumped Xiang.
“If the gunman hadn’t been subdued at the time, I think we would have had a major disaster,” Superintendent Trevor Parks told the media throng.
“If they hadn’t acted quickly and overpowered that gunman, who knows how far it could have gone.’’
Monash University Vice-Chancellor Peter Darvall added that the death toll could have been much higher had “brave souls’’ not wrestled the gunman to the ground.
The morning after the shooting, Xiang appeared at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of murder and five of attempted murder.
That same morning, Prof Inder was back at the Robert Menzies Building to present a 9am lecture to his first-year students.
“It was a short lecture, but it was the last lecture before exams so I thought it was important,’’ he told The Australian at the time.
“It was also a matter of reassuring those first-years that things were under control in the university and the department.’’
Hundreds of students sought counselling.
Dozens placed flowers outside the Menzies building.
One card read: “How could this happen in my own uni? In our own classrooms? How could you?’’
On October 23, the Herald Sun broke the news that Xiang legally owned seven handguns including a powerful .357 calibre magnum revolver and four semi-automatic pistols.
It was later revealed that Xiang was a member of the Sporting Shooters Association and belonged to a pistol club.
The revelations sparked outrage and political debate about gun ownership.
In April 2003, Xiang appeared briefly in court again — this time via video link from a secure ward at the Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital.
His lawyer, Peter Morrissey, said outside court: “Issues of mental impairment are likely to play a significant role in the case.’’
Xiang’s committal hearing was held in September 2003.
It was told Xiang was a paranoid loner who believed it was his destiny to kill a fellow student and anyone like him.
Xiang, known as Allen, developed a jealous fixation on classmate William Wu and believed people at the university were trying to kill him, the court heard.
He claimed a teacher had made “horrible eyes’’ at him and other students did not include him in their assignments.
“I could see from their attitude that they wanted me to die,’’ Xiang allegedly said.
The court heard Xiang had called his classmates “animals’’ and accused them of talking about him behind his back.
He bought seven guns, practised target shooting and raised concerns among teachers about his behaviour in the months before the shooting, the hearing was told.
More of Xiang’s typed note was revealed during the committal proceedings.
It stated: “What I want to say is, please don’t tighten gun control! I anticipate you certainly will tighten gun control and say I am mad.’’
In a police statement, Mr Wu’s girlfriend said: “Allen (Xiang) always thought William was smarter and harder working ... I think Allen was jealous.’’
Magistrate Frank Hodgens committed Xiang to stand trial in the Supreme Court.
Xiang reserved his plea.
At trial, Crown prosecutor Sue Pullen told the jury that Xiang was, in fact, mentally impaired at the time of the shooting.
Ms Pullen said Xiang was described in the months before the shooting as an excellent student but at the same time he was collecting seven handguns and ammunition and attended shooting ranges up to 40 times.
Ms Pullen said the prosecution would not be calling any witnesses to the shooting and three psychiatrists would give evidence about Xiang’s mental state.
Xiang suffered from a paranoid delusional disorder and in that state believed Mr Wu was going to kill him, the jury was told.
Ms Pullen said the defence would be asking for a special not guilty verdict.
The jury granted that request.
In June 2004, Xiang, 38, was given a nominal sentence of 25 years to be served under psychiatric supervision.
Outside court, Dr Gordon-Brown’s parents, Oxley and Joan, said they were glad the case was over.
“He (Lee) still has a bullet in him. He will remember this for the rest of his life,’’ Oxley Gordon-Brown said.
Lee Gordon-Brown, Alastair Boast and Brett Inder received several bravery awards.
A mix of students and other teachers — Andrew Swann, Colin Thornby and Bradley Thompson — were also recognised.
In 2005, Dr Gordon-Brown was awarded the prestigious Star of Courage medal.
This article is based on a report that was first published in October 2014.
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