On 20 January 2017, around 1:30 pm AEDT on a busy Friday, a car was deliberately driven into pedestrians along Bourke Street in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. Six people were killed and twenty-six were seriously injured. The driver of the vehicle, James "Dimitrious" Gargasoulas, who was in a drug-induced psychosis, was subsequently found guilty of six counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 46 years.
Background The maroon 1995 Holden Commodore (VS) Executive sedan used in the attack was stolen from his mother's partner who lived in the same block of flats as Gargasoulas. Upon being interviewed, the car owner alleged that on the night of 18 January 2017, Gargasoulas entered his flat with a Bible, sat down, started burning it and threw it into his face. After this, he said that he flicked it on the floor and was then punched by Gargasoulas.
In the early hours of 20 January 2017, Gargasoulas used methamphetamine at his mother's flat in Windsor and then attacked his brother in the street stabbing him in the head and chest with a knife leaving him in a critical condition."Bourke Street driver identified as James 'Jimmy' Gargasoulas" , Tammy Mills, Beau Donelly and Chris Vedelago, The Age, 20 January 2017. He later took his pregnant girlfriend hostage; she was eventually released in South Wharf.
Attack Gargasoulas was captured on footage driving and behaving erratically at the intersection of Flinders Street, St Kilda Road and Swanston Street, outside the entrance to Flinders Street railway station. Two men, Year 12 student Tevita Mahina and his cousin Isaac Tupou, attempted to stop him, hitting the windscreen with a baseball bat. The driver continued northbound up Swanston St's western-side footpath at speed towards the Bourke Street Mall, turned left onto Bourke Street's southern-side footpath and struck more than 20 pedestrians. The vehicle was stopped outside 555 Bourke Street by a combination of mechanical failure and from being rammed by a Victoria Police Ford Territory from the Operations Response Unit. Victoria Police officers from the Critical Incident Response Team shot the driver in the right arm and also tasered him before his arrest. A child and two adults died at the scene, another man died in hospital before the end of the day, and a three-month-old baby boy died the next day in the evening. A sixth person died on 30 January.
Victims
Among the victims was a 10-year-old girl, Thalia Hakin, who died on 20 January 2017, as well as a three-month-old baby boy, Zachary Matthew-Bryant, who died on 21 January. The others were Yosuke Kanno, a 25-year-old man, Jessica (Jess) Elizabeth Mudie, a 22-year-old woman, Matthew Poh Chuan Si, a 33-year-old man, and Bhavita Patel, a 33-year-old woman.
A memorial for the victims was held in Federation Square on 23 January and floral tributes were left by members of the public at nine locations along the Bourke Street Mall. On 30 January it was announced that a permanent memorial garden would be established, and that donations approaching AU$1,000,000 had been made to the Bourke Street Fund for the families of the victims. On 31 January, the inorganic tributes were removed from the mall for storage by the Melbourne City Council. This collection was subsequently handed over to the State Library Victoria. The floral tributes were taken for composting for the Victims of Crime memorial near State Parliament.
Investigation Police urged eyewitnesses to provide a witness statement and collaborated with over 300 witnesses. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton was quick to dismiss claims the attack was an act of terror and said it was related to a stabbing incident earlier that day which had developed into a crime spree. Victoria Police maintained religion was not a significant motivation.
Coronial inquest On 21 January 2017, the State Coroner announced an inquest would be held which would investigate the decision to release Gargasoulas on bail, his conduct prior to the incident, his previous involvement with police and the police pursuit. In July 2017, as preparation was underway to hold an inquest, the Coroner adjourned the inquest until the conclusion of the criminal trial following a submission from Counsel Assisting the Coroner that to hold an inquest would create a risk of "compromising the criminal proceedings and the rights of the accused to a fair trial". In April 2019, inquest preparation recommenced with the holding of a directions hearing.
Between November 2019 and February 2020, a 31-day inquest into the incident was held. The inquest detailed issues such as police procedures, communications, and decisions made on the day of the attack. On 19 November 2020, Coroner Jacqui Hawkins released a finding which was scathing of Victoria Police's handling of the incident, saying that efforts to negotiate with Gargasoulas amounted to 'nothing more than two phone calls and bizarre text messages'.
Perpetrator James Dimitrious Gargasoulas was born in 1990 and spent much of his childhood in Coober Pedy, South Australia, where he and his younger brother Angelo were raised primarily by their father, they where of Greek origin. Their mother lived in Melbourne and visited the family intermittently. Angelo later described their childhood as highly dysfunctional and said that both brothers experienced significant violence at home. Gargasoulas struggled academically and attended special education classes, while former classmates described him as eccentric and recalled that he was frequently bullied. At the age of 14, he was expelled after bringing explosives from his father's mining business to school. He later undertook a mechanics course before being permitted to return to school, eventually completing Year 11.
At the age of 17, Gargasoulas moved to Melbourne to live with his mother and enrolled at another school with the intention of completing Year 12, but left several months later. As an adult, he undertook occasional work including furniture removal and car detailing, but was unemployed for much of his adult life. He had five children with three women. Gargasoulas also developed a lengthy criminal history, with offending dating from at least 2008 and involving violence, dishonesty, resisting police and dangerous driving. By late 2016, he was regularly using methamphetamine, which the Supreme Court of Victoria later found played a major role in the deterioration of his mental state.
Gargasoulas also had a history of violence towards intimate partners. In 2016, he deliberately crashed his vehicle into a girlfriend's car after accusing her of infidelity, resulting in her being hospitalised. Later that year, after moving to Melbourne, he assaulted another girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time, after again accusing her of cheating. His brother subsequently described Gargasoulas as becoming increasingly unstable and violent while heavily using methamphetamine.
Gargasoulas moved permanently to Melbourne in late 2016. By this time his criminal record reportedly extended to approximately 20 pages and included offences such as reckless conduct causing injury, affray, assaulting and resisting police, escaping custody and numerous driving offences. Police encountered him repeatedly during the months preceding the Bourke Street attack. On 14 January 2017, six days before the attack, Gargasoulas was arrested and charged with 23 offences. During a police interview, some of his answers appeared paranoid and delusional. Police opposed his release, but an after-hours bail justice granted him bail. The bail justice later said that he had not been adequately informed about Gargasoulas's extensive criminal history and escalating mental-health concerns and that, had he received the information, he would have refused bail. The police officers involved disputed parts of his account and said that they had strongly opposed Gargasoulas's release.
During the days following his release, Gargasoulas displayed increasingly paranoid, grandiose and religious delusions. On 18 January, he entered St Francis' Church in central Melbourne and told a priest that he had received a revelation from God and believed that the world would soon end. Police attended the church but did not arrest him. Later that day, Gargasoulas repeatedly contacted Triple Zero, claiming that a comet was approaching Earth and describing what he believed was a worldwide emergency. He also expressed paranoid beliefs involving his family, the government and an impending catastrophe. Four Corners reported that Gargasoulas was using large quantities of methamphetamine and was experiencing a drug-induced psychosis during this period.
At the time of the Bourke Street attack, Gargasoulas was 26 years old, effectively homeless and sleeping in his car. He was experiencing a drug-induced psychosis. During his subsequent trial and sentencing proceedings, Gargasoulas said that he had been attempting to evade police and believed that he had received a divine premonition. He admitted that he entered the city intending to run people over in order to escape police. Justice Mark Weinberg rejected the proposition that Gargasoulas had been unaware of his actions, finding that he understood that his conduct was likely to kill or seriously injure people. Weinberg ultimately concluded that the offending was primarily attributable to Gargasoulas's methamphetamine addiction.
Following his arrest, Gargasoulas was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and developed persistent messianic and paranoid delusions. His mental condition resulted in separate proceedings to determine whether he was fit to stand trial, with psychiatric experts disagreeing about his fitness despite agreeing that he had schizophrenia. He was eventually found fit to stand trial. In November 2018, Gargasoulas was convicted of six counts of murder and 27 counts of reckless conduct endangering life. In February 2019, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 46 years. Weinberg took his schizophrenia into account during sentencing, while finding that his psychosis at the time of the attack did not prevent him from understanding the consequences of his actions.
Legal On Monday 23 January, Gargasoulas was interviewed by the Homicide Squad and subsequently charged with five counts of murder at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. His defence lawyer advised the court he was too unwell to be present in the courtroom, with the Magistrate excusing him from having to be present for future hearings due to his health, remanding him into custody.
In April and May 2017, at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, Gargasoulas made claims such as "Muslim faith is the correct faith according to the whole world," "I am the saviour," "I was under extreme stress, which caused me to have a mental breakdown," "[L]ife is being controlled by the government," and "I'm very saddened by everything that's happened, but it's due to the Illuminati."
In December 2017, Gargasoulas pleaded not guilty to 39 charges, including six counts of murder, and waived his right to a committal hearing in the Magistrates' Court and was therefore committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court.
In March 2018, Gargasoulas pleaded not guilty to all charges in the Supreme Court. His defence lawyers made a submission that given his current mental state he was unfit to stand trial and advised the court that they were awaiting further medical reports. Justice Lasry criticised the three-month delay in holding a hearing to determine his fitness.
In June 2018, a Supreme Court jury was empanelled to decide if Gargasoulas was fit to stand trial.
In October 2018, the Supreme Court jury found Gargasoulas was fit to stand trial despite being diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic.