Yahoo News Police decision not to enter Lindt cafe until gunman opened fire 'staggering' say families of Sydney siege victims
The families of the two hostages killed in a siege at a Sydney café in 2014 have criticised the “staggering” decision by police to raid the site only after the crazed gunman had opened fire.
Speaking publicly for the first time, the families of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson expressed anger at a police decision not to enter the Lindt café until Man Haron Monis, a self-styled sheikh, had killed or seriously injured a hostage.
Police eventually stormed the café in Sydney’s Martin Place when Monis shot Mr Johnson, the 34-year-old manager, after a sixteen-hour siege.
"I'll never be able understand how you can make a calculated decision that you wait for someone to die,” Rosie Connellan, Mr Johnson’s mother, told ABC’s Four Corners program.
Jane Dawson, Ms Dawson’s mother, said: “We all had this feeling that the police are there to protect us all and that they know what they're doing. That's one of the worst things about this is that we feel very let down."
Monis, a 50-year-old Islamist who was on bail for being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, forced Mr Johnson to kneel before shooting and killing him.
This prompted a raid in which Monis was killed along with Ms Dawson, 38, a mother of three and barrister who was hit by ricocheting police bullets.
A two-year coronial inquest is due to release its long-awaited report on the handling of the siege on Wednesday.
The inquest heard that tactical police drew up a plan to storm the café but the siege commanders decided to wait until there was an emergency, such as the shooting of a hostage.
Angus Dawson, Ms Dawson’s brother, said: "The idea that we had to wait for somebody to be killed or seriously injured before the police would act was staggering.”
Ahead of the release of the inquest’s report, the Police Association in the state of New South Wales said police had been the victims of a “witch hunt” and that blame should fall on Monis and on prosecutors for not appealing his bail.
