Cop pinpoints moment James Gargasoulas decided to kill
The cop who tried to get James Gargasoulas to surrender before his deadly CBD rampage believes he knows the moment the Bourke St attacker decided to mow down innocent pedestrians.
Police & Courts
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The cop who tried to get James Gargasoulas to surrender before his Melbourne CBD rampage doesn’t believe he decided to kill until the moment he drove into Bourke St.
Gargasoulas had been evading police throughout the morning of January 20, 2017, after he almost stabbed his brother to death.
Detective Senior Constable Murray Gentner had been speaking to Gargasoulas before the massacre and some of his actions – and those of other officers – is criticised in a report into the incident by Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana.
Those criticisms were put to him on Tuesday at the inquest into the incident which saw Gargasoulas kill six people and injured dozens more when he mowed pedestrians down in Bourke St.
When asked if there was anything Gargasoulas said that could have been hinting he was planning “something drastic”, Snr Sgt Gentner said there was no indication he had planned the attack.
“I’ve replayed it a million times in my mind and I’m still of the belief that I don’t think he decided to do it until he turned into Bourke St. I don’t even think on Swanston St he was trying to kill people. I think once he’s turned onto Bourke St … I certainly had no awareness of what he was wanting to do, but I still don’t think to this day he planned it."
“He didn’t hint at anything and that could have been missed?” counsel assisting Stephen O’Meara asked.
Snr Sgt Gentner said Gargasoulas had been talking about “comets crashing” but there was no specific threats.
If there had been threats, a more “aggressive” action would have been needed to thwart him, and police units in the city warned about what was about to happen.
The Fontanta report said “the offender controlled events throughout the day” and he wanted “police to engage with him so he could achieve his ultimate goal”.
Snr Const. Gentner insisted: “I still don’t think there was an ultimate goal.”
Gargasoulas was on bail at the time of the attack, and when he was released Snr Sgt Gentner told colleagues he would take “active steps” to monitor him with the intent of catching him breaching his bail.
But due to his workload, that never happened.
“There was no monitoring at all of this offender was there?” said Aine Magee, QC, representing the families of the victims.
He told her he was always “keeping an ear out” but he couldn’t prioritise the steps the action he had intended to take.
Criticisms in the report included a failure to pass on information to other units, not attending a debrief after the pursuit was ended, and following Gargasoulas “without any thought to how the situation be resolved”.
Snr Const. Gentner said he was not required at the debrief as he was not directly involved in the pursuit, and he thought relevant information was passed to colleague.
“I don’t think telling everyone every minute detail makes any difference.”
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He told the inquest he didn’t agree the situation was changing significantly and he still believed Gargasoulas would engage with them in “some shape or form”.
Det Sen Const. Gentner said it was difficult to say what lessons were learned after the killings.
“It’s a very difficult thing to answer, because it’s hard to say what would’ve changed what happened,” he said.
“Communications, planning and having resources as to what we were asking for at that time certainly would’ve helped us and potentially changed an outcome.”