Detective Senior Constable Murray Gentner, who tried to negotiate a peaceful arrest with James Gargasoulas, will be the first witness to give evidence at an inquest into the 2017 rampage which killed six people and injured 27 others.
Detective Gentner, the first of 60 witnesses set to take the stand, chatted to Gargasoulas via phone and by text on the day of the tragedy. He tried to get him to surrender peacefully before he was eventually shot and tasered after his car came to a halt.
Two police officers from the Critical Incident Response Team shot Gargasoulas, however the CIRT had ignored requests from local police calling for help to contain Gargasoulas in St Kilda and Elsternwick almost nine hours before the tragedy where he ploughed into the crowds on Bourke Street.
Furthermore, Gargasoulas had dozens of interactions with the police in the days before the tragedy, as well as a release from custody during an out-of-sessions bail hearing just six days before the massacre.
The inquest will examine Victoria Police’s pursuit policy and procedures. Stephen O’Meara, counsel assisting the coroner, said that the inquest “will attempt to distil from this tragedy lessons that may save lives in the future.”
Prior to his arrest, the perpetrator of the massacre had driven erratically across several suburbs as police units had tried to unsuccessfully track and pursue him. Six-minute audio from the police radio was played for the first time during the opening of the coronial inquest. As Gargasoulas drove around in his stolen maroon Holden Commodore along Swanston and Bourke streets, police could be heard repeatedly calling for officers to “take the vehicle out”.
He did “doughnuts” outside Flinders Street Station just minutes before he mowed down six people. On the audio, an officer says, “We have someone down on – multiple victims, multiple victims. As many units as you possibly can, we need to take him out.”
His victims were three-month-old Zachary Bryant, one-year-old Thalia Hakin, 22-year-old Jess Mudie, 25-year-old Yosuke Kanno, 33-year-old Matthew Si and Bhavita Patel, aged 33.
Melinda Tan, the widow of Bourke Street victim Matthew Si said that the police were “never in control of the situation” when they failed to stop one person.
Matthew Bryant, father of three-month-old Zachary, said that “we acknowledge that this crime was the result of one man, but the system is also complicit in our son’s death.” He called for “accountability.”
The victims’ families have requested that Gargasoulas’ name not be mentioned at the inquest. In her opening, Coronor Jacqui Hawkins spoke of the “horrific scenes of murder and carnage” when the pedestrians were mowed down.