The inquest into the police handling of the Bourke Street massacre continued on Wednesday with a stinging criticism made by one of Victoria’s most senior policemen.
Assistant Police Commissioner Stephen Fontana, the author of a 496-page critical incident review of police actions surrounding the 2017 Bourke Street attack, blamed rank and file officers for failing to stop James Gargasoulas on the day of the massacre.
On the first day in the witness box, he told the inquest that St Kilda police officers “had no real plan around bail management.” They failed to fully escalate his risk of offending or raise concerns up the “chain of command” after he was bailed.
“There were things that could’ve been done to make sure he was complying with his conditions,” Mr Fontana said, adding that no one was tasked to look at where Gargasoulas’ mobile phone pings were or given ownership over the arrest plan hours after he stabbed his brother Angelo at Windsor prior to the massacre.
The inquest heard that there had been a new centralised monitoring unit put in place with 24-hour access to airwing footage, CCTV cameras and specialist intelligence made available in the weeks prior to Gargasoulas’ rampage however this was not operating on the day as a result of “technical problems”.
The ‘Fontana Review’ has been subject to suppression attempts by Victoria Police lawyers and documents the police response on 20 January, 2017.
Mr Fontana said the force had done a “lot of soul searching” since the “unprecedented” attack, and that the event had impact on all those involved with more than a thousand police employees seeking help from welfare services following their involvement in the Bourke St attack.
READ MORE: Gargasoulas waved cops “out of the way” and they moved, inquest told