Inside the siege: How the terror unfolded in Lindt cafe
JOHN O’Brien was the first hostage to escape, but his five hours of terror won’t soon be forgotten. This is what happened inside the cafe.
UNITED in fear, after more than five hours held hostage by a crazed self-proclaimed terrorist, two strangers took a chance.
The first hostage to escape the Martin Place siege, 83-year-old Sydney man John O’Brien, has opened up about the moment he and his younger counterpart, barrister Stefan Balafoutis ran hands raised through the Lindt cafe’s service door.
Distinctive in his blue blazer, the image of Mr O’Brien running from the cafe into the arms of tactical police was the first sign there might be hope for the then unknown number of hostages held captive by an unpredictable and erratic captor.
In that moment, five hours of sheer terror dissipated for Mr O’Brien as relief took over.
“I’ve never felt so much relief as when I turned the corner and saw armed police there,” Mr O’Brien said, breaking his silence on the escape.
All the Maroubra man was doing was “grabbing a quick coffee at the Lindt cafe”.
He didn’t realise that choosing to enter the chocolate shop on that sunny Sydney day after seeing his eye doctor would change his life forever.
Meanwhile, devastated Lindt Cafe workers have returned to Martin Place for the second day in a row this morning.
Harriette Denny, 30, in sunglasses and a hat, returned with her fiance George and put roses and a photo from this year’s Lindt Cafe Christmas party up onto the fence outside the scene of Monday’s tragedy.
Ms Denny ran from the cafe with five other hostages just before police launched their assault.
The cafe’s manager, Tori Johnson, was shot dead at the end of the standoff.
Hariette stood at the fence and wept as George fashioned a halo out of paper and fixed it above the photo, then stapled Tori Johnson’s business card below.
Denny was too upset to talk and her fiance spoke on her behalf.
“They’re not going well; it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.
“The loss of everything, the whole situation was uncalled for.”
George said Mr Johnson was a good leader. “Everyone loved him,” he said.
There had been no warning of what was about to happen — for Hariette or the others — of how an ordinary Monday morning was about to become one that no one would ever forget.
Man Haron Monis calmy walked into the Lindt Cafe and disabled the sliding glass doors. He pulled the shotgun out of the blue bag he was carrying and ordered the 17 people inside he cafe to raise their arms in the air. He then told them to get onto the floor.
Staff member Elly Chen was told to hold up a black flag to the window with white Arabic writing that translated to: “There is no god but Allah. And Muhammad is his messenger.”
The sign struck fear into everyone that saw it. Because it suggested the incident was more terrifying than just a robbery.
Monis knew very well that the whole would be watching when the sign was produced and, according to accounts from the hostages, ensured the hostages were at times in front of the windows.
Outside panic spread. Police had been notified by a customer who tried to enter and saw the gun. Another person, barrister Erin Glover, was with her 11-year-old daughter about to go in.
It was a single tear rolling down the face of a Lindt staff member pressed against the glass that told her something was seriously wrong.
By then the first police officer was at the scene and called for her to get out. And to run.
Thousands of people in and around Martin Place, including Channel 7 staff based just metres away, were evacuated and exclusion zones set up.
For the excruciating 16 hours that followed only a handful of people in the outside world knew what was going on inside the up-market Lindt cafe.
Police negotiators heard snippets and those watching from the Seven studio opposite caught occasional glimpses of the drama. Journalists at several news outlets were called with Monis’s claims.
The gunman and would-be terrorist had a message for whoever would listen. The problem no one was — because media, on police advice, didn’t publish the demands.
Monis, as is now widely known, wanted an IS flag and for Australians to know their country was under attack by the Islamic State. He also wanted to have a live-to-air conversation with the Prime Minister.
Those plans were thwarted. Police were responding to the crisis as if it were a terrorist attack and were determined not to give him a platform, partly because it was unclear how he would respond.
It was possible once he had an audience he would carry out a live execution.
Monis was increasingly desperate and agitated. According to several accounts from those held captive he paced around the cafe, occasionally shouting at them, and herded them from one end to the other.
An Englishwoman Louisa Hope was used as a “human shield”, her former husband said from the United Kingdom.
“When he went to the door or the window he held on to her. It must have been horrific.
“He just would not let go of her, even when he was going to sleep he had hold of her.
Ms Hope, 50, and her mother Robyn, were both shot in the terrible final moments of the siege. They are recovering in hospital after surgery.
He forced them at gunpoint to record video messages he posted on You Tube. They were quickly taken down.
One of those forced who conveyed his demands on social media was Marcia Mikhael. Yesterday she was recovering in hospital with her brother Jorge. She said she was feeling blessed and was thankful for everyone’s support and prayers.
‘Blessed and thankful’: #Sydneysiege survivor Marcia Mikhael's message from her hospital bed - http://t.co/CVafjehdWE pic.twitter.com/Mme2qsTrhO
— 7News Yahoo!7 (@Y7News) December 17, 2014Monis had already lost five of his hostages. Three, John O’Brien, Stefan Balafoutis and a cafe worker made a break for it late in the afternoon. Not long after two more Lindt employees, Elly Chen and Bae Ji-eun, saw their chance and fled.
This enraged Monis, who warned the others there would be bloodshed if anyone else tried it.
As hostage Jarrod Hoffman, 19 told the Daily Telegraph: “He says an eye for an eye. If someone else runs, someone dies.”
Throughout the ordeal some hostages are understood to have tried to reason with Monis. The Guardian Australia reported some begged to be let out and to be able to see their families. Monis didn’t allow that and the despair among them deepened.
One hostage, 19-year-old student Joel Herat, reportedly said to another: “None of us is getting out of here alive.”
He confirmed those fears to his mum Roma Herat.
“Joel said to us ‘Mum If we didn’t get out now, we were going to die.’ The terrorist said to them ‘it will be in the morning’. And they said, ‘no we’re going to get out now’,” the Daily Telegraph reported.
With that weighing on their minds and as the siege entered its 17th hour, hostages watched as Monis began to drift off to sleep.
Finally they had a chance to escape. And they took it.
Everyone knew what the stakes were if the hostages tried to flee and police watched as one after the other hostages poured out of the building with their arms in the air.
Monis woke and started shooting. Details are still emerging but it’s possible Tori Johnson, the 34-year-old Lindt manager, tried to wrestle the gun from him.
He was shot dead. A sniper in the Channel 7 office saw him go down and radioed it through to colleagues.
Police then stormed the cafe throwing stun grenades filling the cafe with noise and smoke. But there were also bullets as Monis and police exchanged fire.
Then it was over. The siege had ended and the gunman was dead. But so too was Mr Johnson and mother-of-three Katrina Dawson.
— Additional reporting by Ian Walker
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