Victoria Police didn’t issue an alert for Bourke St killer until weeks before deadly attack

Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was being investigated for months before the Bourke St attack.

A Victoria Police alert for help tracking down Hassan Khalif Shire Ali was not issued until weeks before his deadly Bourke St attack, despite counter terror cops searching for him for months.

Shire Ali killed cafe owner Sisto Malaspina in a stabbing frenzy on Bourke St on November 9 2018 - but a whereabouts flag attached to his name wasn’t issued on Victoria Police’s internal system until late October.

That was after he came to the attention of Fawkner Highway Patrol Officers, who released the 30-year-old because they were unaware the Security Intelligence Unit didn’t know where he lived.

CCTV footage shows a security guard being stabbed in the neck by Hassan Khalif Shire Ali. Picture: Nine News

What exactly the SIU did and the risk it believed Shire Ali posed to Victorians is coming under scrutiny at the coronial inquest into Mr Malaspina’s death and that of Shire Ali, who was gunned down by police after he killed the 74-year-old cafe owner and wounded two others.

The SIU had taken a number of steps to locate Shire Ali, but had not put the whereabouts flag on the police system, known as LEAP, despite searching for him since July.

The flag was eventually put on by general duties officers.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Catherine Fitzgerald, suggested to a senior officer, who can be identified only as SIU Officer A, that would have been an easy and quick thing to do.

Officer A said they preferred more covert options, such as using the police air wing.

Ms Fitzgerald suggested those were “extreme and difficult measures...putting a helicopter up in the sky” to which Officer A agreed it was.

“It seems odd doesn’t it...That you can use [many] means to attempt to find him...but not put a warning flag on the LEAP system,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

Officer A said there had been a “passive monitoring” order on Shire Ali due to other agencies investigating his brother, who was jailed over a Federation Square bomb plot.

Sisto Malaspina was killed in the attack.

Sisto Malaspina and Pellegrini's were Melbourne icons. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

But Ms Fitzgerald said that order ended in mid-August “and no warning flags put on at all” that would have prompted officers to seek an address.

SIU officers had taken a number of steps, including attempting to trace his phones, throughout October as they tried to fill “intelligence gaps”

“We hadn’t had an opportunity to speak to him in recent times [before the attack] and were making a number of inquiries. My investigators were active in trying to find him and find out more and [what state] his mindset and health was,” Officer A said.

Ms Fitzgerald asked her if she agreed the management of Shire Ali’s file was “not ideal” beneath the standard expected for a “person of national security interest”.

“I don’t agree with that. Our officers were working incredibly hard to try and find his location,” Officer A replied.

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