POLICE are reportedly investigating whether one of the victims wounded in the Martin Place siege was hit by a police bullet.
The Australian reports
that at least one of the hostages suffered wounds consistent with a
bullet ricochet rather than a blast from the shotgun held by gunman Man
Haron Monis.Three surviving hostages were wounded when police stormed the Lindt cafe shortly after 2am on December 16, killing Monis to end the 16-hour siege.
Two other people, 34-year-old cafe manager Tori Johnson and 38-year-old lawyer Katrina Dawson were also killed during the siege’s bloody conclusion.
It is unclear at this stage which hostage is believed to have been hit by the police bullet.
The Australian reports only one of the highly trained officers who stormed the Lindt cafe was designated to target the gunman, and that fewer shots were fired than previously reported.
It’s believed Tori Johnson died when Monis, who had grown increasingly agitated and erratic as the siege drew on, fired his shotgun at close range, executing the cafe manager.
This shot is thought to have prompted the Tactical Operations Unit to smash in the cafe’s windows and take out the gunman.
The results from post-mortems carried out on the Johnson, Dawson and Monis have not been made public.
The news comes as Monis’s long-standing grudge against Channel 7 — whose Martin Place studios are directly opposite the Lindt cafe — becomes increasingly clear.
Fairfax Media reports the gunman had become obsessed with Channel 7, particularly its breakfast program Sunrise, following a 2007 interview which he believed incited terrorism.
Monis reportedly wrote to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in 2007 complaining about a broadcast from July 4 of that year, in which a guest commenting on the Glasgow terror attacks said “If you want to kill people, why not use the tools of your own trade like a plague or a disease or something? Why go into an area which you’re clearly unqualified in.”
Only the driver died in the attack, while five other people were injured.
Monis’s complaint to ACMA was dismissed following an investigation and the Attorneys-General under former Prime Ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd reportedly told the gunman the broadcast was fine.
Monis’s obsession with the network continued for years. In 2012 he wrote on his website that the Sunrise broadcast ‘woke him from a deep sleep’.
“Sunrise woke me up! God can awaken a person by many different means even by a terrorist broadcast from the program Sunrise on Channel Seven from the Australian TV!
“I thank God and I won’t give up until the Australian government condemns that broadcast which was instructing terrorism”, Monis reportedly wrote on his now-suspended website.
One avenue investigators are looking into is that Monis initially intended to target Channel 7’s Martin Place studio, but turned his attention to the Lindt cafe when the network boosted security following anti-terror raids in September.
The Daily Telegraphhas reported that Monis was seen pacing outside the studios on the morning of the siege and may have intended to take hostages during the live broadcast of Sunrise.
The gunman’s grudge with the network extended beyond Sunrise.
A damning 2009 report on Today Tonight, which dubbed him a “Fake Sheik”, exposed his history of writing letters to the families of fallen soldiers. The program led directly to charges about letters to war widows, and Monis was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond for the offensive letters — as was his co-accused and widow, 34-year-old Amirah Droudis, who pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting.
Soon after that report aired Monis visited Seven’s Martin Place studios on at least two occasions to hand out pro-Islamic leaflets.
The self-proclaimed Muslim cleric had been fighting the charges over the offensive letters for five years — a battle which came to a head on the Friday before the siege when the High Court refused to remove his case and dismissed his application.
news.com.au 28 Dec 2014
The authorities literally failed the victims, and as a result there should be a lawsuit against the government.
The police should also be charge with manslaughter, but will they?
Australia still importing 'criminals' as refugees in record numbers, deliberate policy or a 'mistake' ?
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