Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
James Gargasoulas, the perpetrator of the January 2017 Bourke Street massacre in Melbourne, was shaped by a combination of a troubled upbringing, chronic drug abuse, and severe, untreated mental illness. His pathway to the attack involved a series of institutional and systemic failures.
James Gargasoulas was a 26-year-old heavy drug user with an extensive criminal record when he drove a car at high speed through central Melbourne killing six people, including a baby boy and a 10-year-old girl.
He was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year for the January 2017 Bourke Street attack.
Despite a guilty verdict there are still outstanding questions about why Gargasoulas was able to carry out such a crime.
Much of the evidence against Gargasoulas has not been seen by the public before.
In this painstaking investigation, months in the making, Four Corners reveals troubling failures to catch and hold Gargasoulas.
These were the last moments police had to stop a man about to commit massmurder.
He deliberately drove at high speed through central Melbourne.
and ran over everyone he could.
six people were killed, including a three – month- old baby,
and a ten year old girl.
27 were injured some catastrophicaly.
“ I had seen him drive past me the karmis look on his face, he had a cigarett in his mouth and that was one of the most startling things to me, he simply looked l ike he was just going for his Sunday drive on the road ….“
“ But he was on a pavement mowing pedestrians with no facial expression “
His name was James Gargasoulas , he was a man with an extensive criminal record and a history of drug babuse and mental instability.
Much of the evidence in this case hasn’t been viewed by the public before, it reveals how multiple failings in the system led to this dangerous man being free
Four corners investigtes how Gargasoulas has reached this point, what the authorities already knew about him and why he wasn’t stopped.
On the 20th of January 2017 Melbourne woke up after a summer storm.
Across town a police drama was unfolding , a man had been stabbed by his brother outside their mother’s public housing unit in Windsor.
The assailanyt was on the run run.
Chanel 9 was filming a live across at the stabbing scene when a guy drove in to shot.
You can’t hear his voice but what he’s saying is ” that’s me they’re looking for”.
It was James Gargasoulas, he was known to police he was on bail for a string of offenses, he believed he’d murdered his brother and had nothing to lose.
The criminal trajectory of James Gargasoulas started years before 1500 kilometers from Melbourne in a dusty dugout town of Coober pedy.
Where he he and his younger brother Angelo were brought up by this single father .
The boys mother lived in Melbourne.
Court documents say James Gargasoulas started showing sociopathic tendencies from an early age.
At age 14 , Gargasoulas smuggled explosives to school to get back at the kids who’d been picking on him .
Over the years , Gargasoulas posted a bizarre series of videos.
On his youtube channel.
Gargasoulas and his mates got their kicks doing doughnuts on the roads outside Coober Pedy.
Angelo describes his brother as cooked on ice and capable of extreme violence especially towards women.
“ I ve seen him drop a woman to the floor dragged by her hair , kicked her and punch her in the middle of the street, knock a woman unconsious completely“
In 2016 Gargasoulas brought one of his girlfriends to leave in Coober Pedy.
Later that year as he followed his girlfriends car along a highway , Gargasoulas deliberately crashed into her.
Gargasoulas girfriend spent 23 days in hospital with spinal injuries.
His behaviour would only worsen.
Gargasoulas moved to Melbourne in late 2016 three months before the Bourke Street carnage his criminal record now ran for twenty pages.
It included driving while disqualified, reckless conduct causing injury, a frey, assaulting police, resisting police and escaping custody.
At Albert Park Lake on October 31 Gargasoulas had a terifying outburst- again accusing his girlfriend of cheating.
She was 19 weeks pregnant with his child, Gargasoulas forced her out of the car
and then left her half naked on the side of the road.
He would later be questioned about the assault by police.
No one was safe from James Gargasoulas, three weeks after the assault of his girlfriend, he kidnapped his brothers friend.
When Angelo confronted his brother , Gargasoulas hit him with a gun.
After Gargasoulas through a tire iron which smashed a taxi window, Angelo spoke to police at the scene.
Police chased Gargasoulas that night, sirens blaring ,but he sped off onto the wrong side of a major Melbourne road ,forcing the police to give up the pursuit.
Just before Christmas, police received another warning about Gargasoulas after he picked up a street sex worker and told her he had a gun.
She spoke to four corners anonymously.
” He was driving very erratically, almost hit a car, almost hit a tree, he’s swung into a side straight , he cut into traffic, just driving like an absolute maniac and that’s when i realized it was probably ice that he was on and my safety was at risk.“
“He boasted to me that he had ran from the police the night before on three occasions that they had engaged in a chase on three occasions and he said each time he was able to get away because he knew if he drove the wrong side of the street or aimed at people thay had to disengage the pursuit “
She made an excuse to get out of his car ,took down his license plate , dialed tripple zero. a sergeant was sent out to see her but no action was taken on.
January 14 2017,Gargasoulas was arrested, it was six days before Bourke Street .
At the police station Gargasoulas joked around as police listed the many crimes he was to be charged with.
He was asked about he’s dangerous driving, his responses to questions often sounded paranoid and delusional.
James Gargasoulas was charged with 23 offences.
Because it was after hours a volunteer bail justice was called .
Victoria is the only state that uses volunteers without legal qualifications to hear bail applications, this one was a teacher.
Police opposed bail but the bail Justice disagreed.
Four corners has obtained the statement of the Bail Justice.
He said the police officers didn’t discuss Gargasoulas escalatinh mental health problems and failed to provide his 20 pages criminal history.
The bail justice also said he observed a warm jovial rapport between police and Gargasoulas . he said Gargasoulas implied he was a police informer .
Police contradict some of the account of the Bail Justice and say they were shocked bail was granted.
Certain that Gargasoulas would reoffended detective Murray Gentner emailed his bosses.
Two days beforre Burke Street detective Gentner again raised concerns with his superious recommending a discreet probe into the bail Justice.
Angelo Gargasoulas was horrified when his brother was release .
On the 18th of January 2 days before Bourke Street
Gargasoulas went to St Francis’ Church in in central Melbourne.
Father Graeme Duro heard shouting from below his window.
Father Duro went to meet an agitated Gargasoulas who was captured on this CCTV.
“ He said , i really want to talk to you about a revelation i’ve had from god, the world’s going to end in a month’s time or sometime next month, his eyes were quite piercing and he did say at some stage to me, ‘look into my eyes when i speak to you’“
“I turned back into themonastery and he made acomment,i can’t wuite recall the exact words but i think it was something along the line’look at you;
‘you’re a disgrace you’re the devil’ “
Gargasoulas entered the church and began to rant from the pulpit about terrorists.
he was filmed by a security guard as the organist played on .
The security guard called police, he was interviewed by two police out in the yard .
When police ran a named check they were told Gargasoulas was not wanted for any outstanding warrants and so decided he was not a risk.
They did not pursue him.
But only four hours later police were called again this time from the unit block where Gargasoulas mother lived .
The CCTV shows Gargasoulas arriving at the apartment of his mother’s then boyfriend Gavin Wilson.
He asked him for his car keys then all of a sudden burning a bible in front of him and he said no.
Gargasoulas attacked Wilson with the burning Bible.
Before police could arrive,Gargasoulas sped off inGavin Wilson”s Maroon Commodore.
It was the car he would ultimately drive all the way to Bourke Street.
That night Gargasoulas ranked triple zero repeatedly.
Gargasoulas was reguarly using large quantities of ice, he was in a grip of a drug- induced psychosis.
The following night on January 19, CCTV captured Gargasoulas in the same car going through a McDonald’s drive -thru at st . Kilda.
He brought his meal over to the dogs bar across the road but was asked to leave.
But not without a load of commotion – people screaming,glasses breaking , tables falling over, Gargasoulas basically scraped his arm along the back of the fence who is outside of the fence scraped it along and nocked everybody over and all the glass and wine and whathever that were on tables.
People had glass in their mouths ,down the dressers, in their shoes ,it was everywhere,in the end , he standing in the middle of the road just snirking and laughting .
Yet again police were called but staff said they didn’t come.
It stormed in Melbourn that night,Gargasoulas continued his rampage arriving at his mother’s apartment after 1 a.m.
Also with Gargasoulas that night was his new girlfriend.
Just after 2 a.m . Gargasoulas and his brother left the apartment.
As they reached the gate ,James Gargasoulas pulled out a large kitchen knife,Angelo tried to run but his brother then stabbed him right through his chest.
For the fourth time in nine hours police were called.
James Gargasoulas fled the scene…
evading arriving police…
Turning up to see friends , that night he told them something.
At 4:30 a.m . a St. Kilda police sergeant urgently requested help from the Critical Incident response Team emphasazing how dangerous Gargasoulas was .
But he says the Team refused to attend as the case did not fit their criteria for a critical incident.
On the morning of January 20 Gargasoulas was due to face court, his brother Angelo was fighting for his life in an induced coma, when Gargasoulas drove up behind the channel nine crew.
Three hours later Gargasoulas was driving through South Melbourne when he realized police were following him .
He had kidnapped his girlfriend,she begged him to stop, Gargasoulas pulled over but as the officers got out of their car, he accelerated rapidely.
He told his girlfriend if they catch up to me i’m gonna run down everyone in the city
Seven minutes later a Critical Incident Response Team caught up with Gargasoulas the police approched his car with firearms drawn, Gargasoulas pushed his girlfriend out onto the road.
But he escaped again.
In keeping with Victoria police pursuits policy a local sergeant ordered members not to chase or intercept his car and to maintain covert observations from a safe distance.
By midday detective senior constable Murray Gentner vas on Gargasoulas tale.
Gentner sent him a text message.
Gargasoulas reply was rambling and menacing.
After again losing his police tail Gargasoulas stopped at a building sigte in Suburbuan “Euroville”.
Contractor Trent Schmidt dial triple zero
The police helicopter was sent
before officers on the ground could arrive to intercept him
Gargasoulas sped away again.
Gargasoulas into the CBD continuing to text with detective Gentler.
Over an hour and 19 minutes the detective and the fugitive texted 33 times with Gentler repeatedly asking him to pull over.
And 1:27 , Gentler texted “ don’t do this“
In one of the cars was detectives Gentler.
at 1:32 he sent Gargasoulas on last text message.
But he didn’t.
Gargasoulas kept driving down Swanston Street with police following
He picked up pace..
….and mounted the footpath.
Then screetched around the corner into Bourke Street.
Gargasoulas was on Bourke Street for 55 seconds, he hit 33 people before he was tasered and shot by police.
The panicking woman was the baby’s nanny.
The baby was Zachary Mathew Bryant, he was 3 months old.
He was the youngest of the six people Gargasoulas murdered.
In February Gargasoulas was sentenced to life in prison, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
An investigation will be launched later this year to examine the actions of the Victoria Police regarding Gargasoulas.
And how they handled him in the period leading up to the incident.
The inquest will also focus on how this man was out on bail…