Hostage in Sydney cafe was killed by police bullets during raid: courts
BY JASON SILVERSTEIN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 9:35 PM
When police stormed a Sydney cafe in December, killing a gunman to end a 16-hour hostage standoff, they also accidentally killed a hostage, an inquest revealed Wednesday.
Katrina Dawson, 34, one of the two hostages killed in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe, was struck by six fragments from one or more police bullets, one of which hit a major blood vessel.
That detail emerged in the first day of a coroner’s court inquest about what happened that day in December and what led up to it. Several surviving hostages will be called as witnesses, the BCC reports.
A former member of Australia’s counter-terrorism unit has suggested the police used the wrong rifles during the standoff, with bigger bullets that were more likely to ricochet, ABC reports.
The first inquest day also revealed that gunman Man Haron Monis forced Tori Johnson, the other hostage who was killed, to kneel down before being shot in the back of the head. The media previously reported Johnson, the cafe's manager, tried to knock the gun out of Monis’ hand before being shot.
Monis took 18 people hostage in the Lindt Chocolate Cafe on a Monday morning. He reportedly had a history of mental illness and supported radical Islamic extremism. During the standoff, he hung a black flag in the cafe that said in Arabic: “There is no God but Allah; Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah,” a phrase that also appears on the ISIS flag.
Police raided the cafe after several hostages ran out of it. Besides the three fatalities, four other hostages and a police officer were injured.
As the inquest continues, prosecutors plan to delve into Monis’ mental health history and determine how he got the guns used in the attack.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/sydney-cafe-hostage-killed-police-bullets-courts-article-1.2095666
Structure of the Lead :
Who : police
When : December
What : killing a gunman and a hostage
Why : to end a 16-hour hostage standoff
Where : a Sydney cafe
How : not mentioned
Keywords:
- storm v. 猛攻
- standoff n. 僵持
- inquest n. 驗屍、審訊
- fragment 碎片
- counter-terrorism unit 反恐部隊
- ricochet跳飛、跳彈
- extremism極端主義
- prosecutor檢察官
- delve into探究
I am very sorry to hear this terrible news. It was so horrible that there were 16 people being seized as hostages. These was no cause and no reason why the criminal caught them. Although the police ended the 16-hour hostage standoff, it caused the great panic. What's worse, the criminal was killed and there were two hostages killed by the criminal in the end. Such a misery that many people pray such bad events would not happen again. Of course, I hope that everyone can live a happy life in every country.
回覆刪除It was very great for the two hostages to save people's life. Though the criminal was killed, the two hostages' families and other victims were under the misery of losing their them. I hope this kind of event will not happen again.
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