ALTONA NORTH 450: Urgent. Someone needs to take this vehicle out before he kills someone. Received. Get an opportunity. AIR 490: Bourke Street mall now. Uncontrolled on Bourke Street mall. James Gargasoulas did "doughnuts" outside Flinders Street Station minutes before he murdered six people on Bourke Street. MELBOURNE EAST 252: East 252, received that. If a unit gets an opportunity, yes, I need them to take it out before some ped gets squashed. UNKNOWN: .......... 307, pedestrians hit. Bourke and Elizabeth, 307. Pedestrians hit.

POLICE COMMUNICATIONS: Bourke and Elizabeth, Bourke and Elizabeth, pedestrians. There any units that have the opportunity, take the vehicle out. POLICE COMMUNICATIONS: If any vehicle has the opportunity to take the vehicle out. ALTONA NORTH 450: 450. We have someone down on - multiple victims, multiple victims. As many units as you possibly can, we need to take him out. POLICE COMMUNICATIONS: As many units as available, please head straight to Bourke Street.

Gargasoulas was tailed by police for hours before driving the stolen car through the CBD and mowing down dozens of pedestrians, killing six people. He texted an officer who begged him to stop that he was "the saviour" and would not surrender. Melinda Tan, the widow of Bourke Street victim Matthew Si, told the inquest that police were "never in control of the situation" when they failed to "stop one person in a car". "The offender played them and he won," she said. The offender played them and he won. Melinda Tan, widow of Bourke Street victim Matthew Si Stephen O’Meara, counsel assisting the coroner, said Victoria Police's pursuit policy and procedures would be scrutinised by the inquest, including the force's new hostile vehicle policy that was introduced last month.

"This inquest will attempt to distil from this tragedy lessons that may save lives in future," he said. Gargasoulas was ultimately shot by two police officers from the Critical Incident Response Team. But, as The Age has previously revealed, CIRT ignored repeated requests from local police to help contain and arrest Gargasoulas in St Kilda and Elsternwick almost nine hours before the tragedy. Gargasoulas was shot after he'd ploughed into the crowds on Bourke Street. Credit:Leigh Henningham The actions of CIRT are due to come under intense scrutiny throughout the inquest, as well as Gargasoulas' release from custody during an out-of-sessions bail hearing, six days before the massacre.

The coroner heard details of the dozens of interactions Gargasoulas had with police in the days before the tragedy, as well as disputed evidence of the killer's then-girlfriend. Mr O’Meara said the woman recalled warning officers shortly before Gargasoulas drove into the CBD that her partner was "going to the city to run people over". But the police stationed in the city did not know. Police have since denied this was said, but Mr O'Meara said the evidence would be of "significance". Matthew Bryant, the father of three-month-old victim Zachary Bryant, said "much more could have been done by Victoria Police".

"There were numerous opportunities to prevent this from occurring prior to and on the day ... from the individual's release from the out-of-session bail hearing to the failure to arrest the murderer on many occasions, to the inaction by the CIRT team on the day of the incident. "There needs to be accountability ... We acknowledge that this crime was the result of one man, but the system is also complicit in our son's death." We acknowledge that this crime was the result of one man, but the system is also complicit in our son's death. Matthew Bryant, father of Zachary Bryant Police began searching for Gargasoulas at 2.20am on January 20, about an hour after he allegedly stabbed his brother, Angelo, multiple times in the face, neck and chest outside a housing commission flat in Windsor. Gargasoulas had been on a two-month long crime spree, after returning from South Australia, with detectives from the Port Phillip criminal investigation unit collating notes about the wanted man on a whiteboard in their office.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Coroner Jacqui Hawkins said she would focus her investigation on the actions of police. "We all know who violently ended the lives of these six individuals ... the focus of my investigation is on the events leading up to January 20, 2017," she said. Ms Hawkins said the day of the rampage started like "any other ordinary day in Melbourne". "It was summer and nearing the end of the school holidays. The city was pulsing with energy and life.

"At approximately 1.30pm six innocent lives were lost. Loading "It was a day when Melbourne bore witness to an unspeakable tragedy in our history." The victims also included Tahlia Hakin, 10, Jess Mudie, 23, Bhavita Patel, 33, and Yosuke Kanno, 25. Gargasoulas, who suffers paranoid schizophrenia, was jailed in February for at least 46 years for what was described by the sentencing judge as one of Australia's worst examples of mass murder.