Getty Images
On the sunny afternoon of Jan. 20, real-estate worker “Alice” had just enjoyed lunch with a friend and was heading back to the office when she saw the unthinkable.
“We saw a car coming through the mall,” says Alice, who asked WHO not to use her real name. “He was driving like a lunatic. It was like something off the TV.”
Seconds later, her shock turned to horror. “I saw a body on the front of the car,” she says. “We were just shaking.”
Within moments, an entire nation was reeling over a deadly car rampage that left five dead, including a 3-month-old baby, and more than 30 injured.
Dimitrious “Jimmy” Gargasoulas, who was shot and arrested at the scene, has been charged with five counts of murder. It is alleged Gargasoulas, 26, who was on bail for a string of alleged offences at the time of the attack, drove a stolen Commodore to the CBD where he “deliberately” mowed down pedestrians on Bourke Street.
Mind Games employee Oliver Vogel-Reed, 19, tells WHO how he witnessed the car driving toward pedestrians outside his store, near the mall. “The car was about a metre away from the door as it drove past,” he says. “A few of the people that ran into our store almost got hit. There were screams further up the street.”
Before the carnage, it is alleged Gargasoulas stabbed his younger brother, Angelo, multiple times at the public-housing unit in Windsor where his mother, Emily, lives.
Angelo, who is recovering in hospital, “was stabbed right through the stomach, the knife came out the other side,” neighbour Gavin Wilson, 76, tells WHO. “But I think he’s going to come good.”
Among those killed was 3-month-old Zachary Bryant, whose 2-year-old sister, Zara, was also injured and was in a stable condition in hospital at press time. Other victims were 10-year-old Thalia Hakin, Melbourne father Matthew Si, 33, a 25-year-old Japanese man and Sydney insurance consultant Jess Mudie, 22, twin to sister Emily. “You will always be a part of us,” said Mudie’s family.
For more, pick up a copy of WHO, on sale now.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
