Eight people died & 5 were injured. The police sat outside waiting for the SWAT Unit. They should have been in the building chasing the gunman. They are trained for these situations & failed to act. The damage could have been controlled. The other problem was that information from within the building was not being passed on to police at the scene. There were people within the building who were contacting the Emergency number but their info was not getting to the police at scene. A total breakdown in communication. I realise communication was not what it is today but I there was an enquiry that found that not all callers were believed by the Emergency Operators. Sad, because if the police could have isolated the offender they could have entered the building & saved people's lives. The other problem was waiting for SWAT who were over 15 minutes away. Vitkovic killed 8 people in 17 minutes. It was over before the SWAT team ever arrived.
@@TheTrueCrimeChannel yes it was. Australia has only had a few of these incidents. But semi- automatic weapons should have been banned after the first. They should have also introduced Psychological Assessments as part of the application for a weapon. This could have saved 37 lives lost at Port Arthur
I applaud that cop for saying he would take responsibility for the decisions made that day as to going/not going into the building. I would really like to know, though, what cops in their right minds told those guys in the elevator to return to the crime, instead of running out the door to safety?! WTF.
Survivors are victims for life. Some manage to overcome the memories, others struggle. Rest in peace to the innocent people who lost their lives to that selfish monster. 💔
@@TheTrueCrimeChannel the call that detective got from dispatch at first was just armed robbery. Usually negotiaters come in,swat, and try to talk robbers into giving up. They werent told initially it wasnt a robbery. Dispatch wasnt forwarding the call info from within the building.
Yeah, but it's not really first time. I remember watching some videos about Columbine shooting, the school was surrounded by cops, no one tried to go inside and neutralize the shooter, even when they knew exact location (librarian called 911, when one of guys was in there, shooting everyone around the room).
I can see why they sat outside, you just don’t rush into an unknown scene they needed some idea of where, what and how. I think the bigger problem was that any information coming out of the building was not being passed on correctly or quick enough.
@@paulinehiggins8239 Some of these guys are military. IN THE MILITARY THEY GO IN WITHOUT KNOWING EXACTLY WHERE THE ENEMY IS. If he heard the policemen coming in he probably would have ran or OFF HIMSELF SOONER.
I can’t believe they tell that guy to go back on the elevator and go upstairs that is not right they all should be in prison for encouraging that man to go upstairs for him to get shot and they just sat there and waited for the swat team not rightat all all those people died because they sat on their butt . Rest in peace to all the victims, and also my prayers for the remaining people who were victimized by this person
I don’t understand why the people weren’t running down the stairs or elevator to bottom to run out, I hear gun shots no matter what year, I’m running far away. The police didn’t do crap but cause a bunch of chaos outside!
Plus, a lot of them didn't realize they were in danger until it was too late. People on level 12 won't heat what's happening on level 5. People in the building didn't know which direction he planned on going so wouldn't know where to run
how silly it is that everybody is just so shocked yet not acknowledging that this tragic deaths are simply the result of our society system we create and live in.
There are a lot of people that are bullied and teased, but don't kill people. I was bullied and teased horribly as a child and in high school. I never wanted to kill anyone. I choose to pray for them as well as choose not to associate with people like that.
Ok but what alternative do you propose, that would make Mr Rousseau proud? The norm-critical group hug, with its tolerant disdain for the untouchable straight, white, cis males? The peace-loving "no trust-this, no fleas" pro-Hamas liberator vision? Erik Honecker's worker's paradise, with its wall preventing the lucky chosen from escaping to us? Conflict resolution the Al-Assad-, Qaddafi-, Jinping-, Genghis Khan- or Neo-Assyrian empire way? Whining is easy. Balancing civic liberties against safety needs in mass population societies is hard.
I was horribly bullied and NEVER thought it was OK to kill my bullies. I get sick and tired of people claiming them being bullied led them to kill a bunch of people! NO! I never had any help from anyone either. These killers were just seeking a reason to do their deed and being bullied is their go to. At some point a person has to take responsibility for their actions and stop blaming every one else for what they do.
sounds like the gunman experienced severe narcissistic abuse, not everyone can deal with it, and when there is no justice is just festers. bullying is unacceptable, also far too easy for a young man to get a gun, what does he want it for
@@TheTrueCrimeChannel All people need to do more instead of serving themselves and being so aloof. This happened within 17 minutes. What do you think -- that policeman just appear?
This horrific incident and the Hoddle St murders just prior were what prompted me to give up working in Melb as an investigator & get on a flight out of the country. My city was turning into a nightmare that at 24 yrs old I could do without.
@@TheTrueCrimeChannel Unfortunately, I returned to Melb 15 years later 🤷♀ and now the issue isn't guns, it's knives and 15 yr olds nightly home invasions 😒
Poilice sitting outside.and doing nothing...hmmm.Sounds familiar. Same as what happened at Uvalde School.Except at least these police officers were being shot at...
kids just dont realise that bullying with hurtful things said can play on that other persons mind, way into adulthood. Sad in a way that this then happened
I was bullied many times as a child and young adult and I've never considered doing something like this! Bullying isn't right, but this man had a choice, thousands of choices that led up to his decision to kill these poor people. HE was not the ultimate victim, his victims were!
I worked at the old Police HQ building in William St when this occurred and remember hearing of it very quickly as word travelled around our 19 floors, which had the Chief Commissioner and the deputy commissioners all on the 19th floor. We had security in that building from when I started there in 1980, there was a reception desk on the ground floor surrounded by glass and we had City West police station on the ground floor. There was also a duress button just under the desk which connected to the police station which was roughly only 20 feet away but separated by walls. You had to sign in and wear a visitor’s pass the entire time you were in the building if you didn’t work there and have your Freddie with you. Whoever the person was you were meeting would be contacted and had to come down and escort you up. No one was permitted to enter the building and wander at random. I’m sure that it’s much tougher now but we had a very formidable lady named Dot who worked at the desk, and she could scare the crap out of anyone. This incident was a terrible shock, as was the Hoddle St massacre. Shook us all and was so frightening. many of us will never forget.
lets all pray we never have to deal with so terrible a situation & God help us NOT TO HAVE cowards that let us die rather than expose themselves! All those cops should be ashamed of themselves
Take a look around! Most people, including those who claim they are not, are bullies. Look at the comments on social media and you will see that bullying is rampant by adults who think it is ok to make fun of a person's body shape, feelings, emotions, political views etc. and think it's fun to make that person miserable with their comments. Keyboard bullies are the worst of all kind because they know they can remain anonymous for the most part and will never 'bump into' their victim. You can't stop bullying when the ones telling the younger generation to stop being bullies are showing them how to be bullies with their actions.
How about if you've been treated badly, get help and don't kill people! The bullies who hurt the perp were not great people, but THEY are not responsible for this man's actions.
I live in Melbourne and was 10 yrs old when this happened. Thankfully we didn't have many shootings since this until 1996. Fortunately in 1996 gun laws were tightened and this hasn't happened since. I actually have never seen a documentary this before.
Good for the two gents who tackled him, doubtless they saved many more people that day, they are indeed heroes. Some of the other survivors may also have had 'survivor's guilt' after the incident, which would not have been recognised back then. Completely baffled by the cops who sent the two gents in the lift back up. That was beyond explanation and common sense. As much as the cops would have been inexperienced for such a situation, it was a crazy decision. And they ended up on the 11th floor no less. With the exception of one male victim, the perp did seem to have a hatred of women, executing them by close range bullet to the head in three cases. Misogyny is actually a trend in many mass shootings. The thing of it is, when 'taking out' victims who pose a real threat, one would think the killer would become 'extra sure' in taking out male threats to 'their mission'. And in this case, that was clear, by only wounding one of his ultimate assailants. Years ago, when I analyzed about 20 years of US school shootings, the female victim count was about 65% (or perhaps more, I cannot recall the exact figure, but disproportionately higher, and higher than random chance). My take on that is 'failed men' take out most of their aggression upon that to which they feel 'entitled'. Which probably spills over into the domestic violence homicides, whereby the majority of women killed are killed by current or former partners, about 60-65%, (entitlement), but the reverse is true for men, only about 5% are killed by female partners. And very very few mass homicides committed by women (you really have to dig deep to find them). Sorry for the tangent, but it did raise questions because of the detail in which the victims were killed. Thank you to the channel for a well put together documentary on this.
I think we need to remember the time and place; mass shootings are very rare in Australia so that can explain a lot of the workers’ reactions and perhaps a bit of why the police bungled handling it quickly. If you’ve never encountered a gunman before, you don’t necessarily have training to react in the most appropriate and timely way. Also, this was in the 80s! While there had been mass shootings (mostly in America ofc), it was rare meaning again, the workers nor police likely even knew what the sound was / knew what was happening nor how to react. What the brave souls did here was pure instinct. This case set the stage for many changes in Australia and I only wish the US learned anything from how it was handled afterwards.
I was sympathetic to the police at first, they weren’t used to these kind of situations, but by the end I was just thinking they were crap. They made no effort to even find out what was going on! They did nothing whatsoever.
Trying to understand why he did this terrible act, the police should be looking at how they conducted themselves and maybe more people would have been saved. They were shambolic to say the least.
It seems to me that at the time Australia was poorly equipped to deal with a mass shooting event. It also seems that police were playing too much by the book when they relied on their training. I take it that police procedure back then was to wait for the Swat team before they could storm the building?
What in gods name were the police doing, It seems to me that they were just standing outside not doing a thing, And as for telling that man to go back in the lift and go back up, Well it just beggers belief.
Heartbreaking & such a shame Australia didn't decide to ban automatic & semi automatic fire arms at this point rather than leaving it until after the Port Arthur massacre where a lot of those victims could have been saved. RIP to all the victims & their families 😢
Oh WAKE UP. You normies are SO asleep. ALL these events are planned & staged by the "controllers" of this world....IN ORDER to take guns. ANYONE can get hold of an illegally owned gun. Banning ordinary good citizens from owning them is ONLY about removing our ability to FIGHT BACK when these controllers launch a take over. And if the SCAMdemic didn't show you what they are capable of, nothing ever will. This guy was likely singled out & put under MK Ultra mind control to carry this out. Other f@l$e f1@g events like $@ndy H00k were FAKE
Oh gosh remember that. Such a slow response from the swat team then also, while the nation stayed glued to the television all night. Haunts me still. I was going there that day but on the drive to work i completely changed my mind which felt odd to even me at the time. Everyone’s family and friends all working in the city.
ermagerd, the green and yellow trams and buses, and the yellow Commodore police car o.O bringing back memories I remember his name, but not the actual event. oh no, not the Christian Dior tie! I don't fault survivors at all, not their actions nor their rationale; I've never been in such a situation so will never know (hopefully) the terror someone faces in such a situation by an extreme coincidence, I was almost at this same spot last Wednesday, I walked up Collins St to almost the corner of Queen St to take photos of Reine & La Rue, a restaurant at 380 Collins St, to send to an acquaintance who will be attending her granddaughter's 21st birthday luncheon there on Monday of next week
@@TheTrueCrimeChannelProbably more people remember the Port Arthur shooting, (I've just read the wiki page, which is truly terrifying) which I think was what changed gun laws. Purely by coincidence, I used to work near Hoddle St in Abbotsford, and I think the Julian Knight incident was in Clifton Hill (further north than where our factory was)
THIS is why gratitude should NEVER be given simply because someone has a badge. Plenty of cops are cowards, but people assume a badge automatically makes them a hero. It does NOT!!
I am not going to read every comment but surely there must be 249 WTF comments about police telling the people who made it to ground level to go back up into a building where there's an assassin/sociopath killing people. Everyone at once: WTF???
Who takes a gun to an office job? What workplace would allow that? I’d be more worried if my coworkers all had guns in the office.the criminal had the gun!
@@SamBarge1 where ever I go there’s you in the comments with your their their. Just comes across as rude really. You know it’s most likely a spellcheck typo thing. Put your red pen back in its holster would you.
@@Matilda-y The coolest thing I could do right now is correct the spelling in that comment but I won't. My mother raised me to spell correctly but not to be rude, even when it's funny.
I would've never gone back up. I could mention sp I ritully & physically, I've come dangerously to close to being dead so many times,it would literally imlpact me to say the least, but I'm speaking real true crimes. It would be a feast to write a script & make a,movie out my horrific true crimes & events of staying aloof & standing upright with God ,& overcoming one dangerous obstacle after another, & another,but the present horror nightmare of almost losing,my life so many times,is still left unforeseen, but God Almighty sees,&'he's divinely guiding & protecting me & so I called out to him to save me ,& yes I'm indebted to the Creator & luv him unconditionally...🎉😂❤
Just this year (AU), multiple stabbing incidents, so I really do not get your point. It has not stopped the random multiple killings. Are you in a city? We have plenty of guns (long arms) in the country. Far less multiple shootings out here. The common factor in most of these gun or stabbing crimes, was happening in a big city. So perhaps we ban big cities? Seems to make people go crazy. Just pointing out that your logic train got derailed. And in fact, I will bet the farm that more people are murdered by arson as much as knives, and both of those far more than guns, even before the tighter regulations. The only general exceptions to the multiple homicide committed by gun in the country, are domestic homicides, but not random victim shootings. Port Arthur would be the exception to that. Heck, I even came across a domestic massacre committed by axe in the early 20th century. I am only arguing that there is a middle ground between absolute zero private firearm access, and the free-for-all no-regulation of the US. Knee jerk reactions to heinous crimes do not resolve anything.
@@TheTrueCrimeChannel I suspect Dennis is citing just random reports of childhood bed wetting or other incontinence. Loads of children do that without going on to kill anyone. Probably almost every young child has wet their beds? The correlation Dennis is attempting to make is some kind of needle in a haystack at best.
Well this is what happens when you give up your freedom for safety, you become a subject of the crown, the police are part of the crown and must be protected, subjects are expendable. Free people are able to defend themselves.
Becuz I'm muslim,it's a part of our tradition that most males young & old is validated as extra skin can be an infliction,it's suppose to be a heathier sanitary. I remember a day came when all my 4 bros had to be circumcised, they all had a bucket 🪣 each to collect the blood they were losing but we also had professional doctors Priests & mandatory prayers. Within a day or so,my brothers were back to their heavy chores,& picking on one another,so many family & love memories...🎉😅
It’s actually not any cleaner. Nor is it extra skin. It functions the same way our eyelids do. It protects the organ from irritation and bacteria. Google “Your Whole Baby”.
When theres a shooter, and you're hiding, dont scream. Women dont seem to understand that screaming does nothing but give you away. It's not instinctual it's a choice. Like screaming giving birth is a choice. It doesnt change your situation except make things worse. Stay quiet.
What a strange comment. The only person that reportedly screamed was a woman that wasn't hiding. The people that were hiding were whimpering in fear but they were men and women.
That is a ridiculous comment. Also unsubstantiated. Most people seemed to be either hiding, or encountered, and not screaming. One woman begged for her life AFTER being shot, and then was shot in the head. Whether she had done that or not, probably would have had no bearing on the outcome, it is likely he still would have executed her anyway. Frankly, you watch too many movies, where 'women scream'. Not necessarily the case at all. And everyone will react differently. Most people in the Queen Street massacre went straight into hiding, not screaming. Edna, you seem to be a stupid and judgemental person. Own it.
