At first report there were fears of multiple fatalities and there was a sense of relief that “only” one person died. But many received life-altering injuries, while others will carry mental scars forever. Kees Green, then 43, saw the SUV heading towards him and pushed two women clear before he was struck. He suffered several spine fractures plus cuts and deep bruises to his head, shoulder, chest and knee. A tourist carrying his grandson was hit and critically injured with head wounds. The little boy suffered a fractured skull. Saeed Noori following his arrest. Credit:Seven News Melbourne A 24-year-old Chinese student received multiple skull fractures and breaks to facial bones, spine and ribs. A service delivery driver suffered broken legs and injuries that required orthopaedic surgery. An administrative assistant, 35, sustained brain bleeding, fractured wrists, a broken arm and three breaks to the legs.

What motivated Noori has never been established but he had a hatred for ASIO, feeling the spy agency unfairly targeted Muslims, and he was fascinated with international terrorist attacks. One of his home computers contained encrypted entries on vehicle attacks in London, Charlottesville and Barcelona. Clearly this was a copycat ambush. How long he had been planning the December 21, 2017 attack will never be known. In the months that followed homicide investigators were able to piece together his movements without proving a motive. He was one of 10 children and aged 12 when the family fled Afghanistan to escape the Taliban. He arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2004, becoming a citizen two years later. Initially considered a hard worker and family man, he became a heavy gambler and drug user. Emergency services tend to the wounded at the intersection of Elizabeth and Flinders streets on December 21, 2017. An addiction to ice, a history of mental illness and a fascination with terrorism were all in the mix but in the end it is all about what he did, not why he did it.

The previous night he spent gambling at Crown Casino and that morning went to the bank and withdrew $7000, depositing $3000 in his mother’s account. Around 1pm he left the family’s public housing unit in West Heidelberg, saying he was heading to town to shop for a family New Year’s Eve party. Instead he caught a bus down Bell Street to the Preston Avis car rental branch where he tried to hire an SUV but as none were available he headed to the nearby Europcar office to hire a van similar to those used in overseas attacks. He was knocked back because he didn’t have a sufficient limit on his credit card. Noori then caught a bus to his mother’s Oak Park house and borrowed her Suzuki, saying he had a doctor’s appointment. He then drove to the city, making sure he obeyed all the road rules on the 15-kilometre trip. In sentencing him to life with a minimum of 30 years, Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said: “In the midst of the chaos and mayhem at the intersection, many ordinary people did extraordinarily brave and compassionate things that day. Some people risked their own lives pushing others out of your path. “An off-duty policeman quickly went and restrained you on his own, without concern for his personal safety.

“One of the people whom you hit wrote to the Crocaris family, to let them know that strangers had comforted Mr Crocaris and held his hand as he lay there, critically injured. She concluded her letter by saying ‘Please remember, as we are struggling to, that most people are kind and decent to each other. I saw one man do something hateful, but I saw many more people do something loving that day’." The hero policeman was Sergeant Francis Adams. He has not spoken publicly about what happened that day until now. Francis Adams, left, the veteran police officer who was off duty but compelled to act during the December 2017 car attack. Adams is a 30-year veteran with a history of sharp-end policing who has moved into training and strategy (he has a Masters in education). He was one of the first police on the scene at Moorabbin in August 1998 when Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rod Miller were ambushed and murdered. More than 20 years on he still avoids driving down Cochranes Road, where they were killed.

On December 21, 2017, Adams looked at the clock at the Victoria Police Centre and realised he was running late as the pre-Christmas road safety meeting had run over time. He was due at the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth streets to meet his sister. Typically, he would later say, he had not bought a single Christmas present and planned to blitz the shops. Outside the building he jumped on a tram to travel just over a kilometre to claw back a few minutes. Two minutes earlier or two minutes later Adams would not have been the man on the spot. But he was, and even though he was off duty he knew he had to act. No one could blame him if he stood still, took cover, walked away or shepherded his sister to safety. Loading No one, that is, except Adams.

While he stood there he heard the car accelerate, flicked his eyes to note the pedestrian light was green and immediately concluded this was no accident but, in all probability, a terrorist attack. Like most police he wondered what he would have done if he had been in Bourke Street 11 months earlier, when James Gargasoulas deliberately mowed down pedestrians, killing six and injuring 27 more. But Adams always thought if he was in those circumstances he would be fully equipped and on duty - not unarmed, unprotected, unprepared and on his own. “I believed he was an active armed offender who had launched a vehicle-borne attack and I thought it was a co-ordinated attack. I thought, ‘the job’s on here’, and I just ran at him. “Something had to be done, don’t you think?”

Adams is a big man with a quiet, thoughtful manner, laconic sense of humour and a reasoned approach to life. When asked why he became a police officer he smiles slightly, looks away and says: “World peace.” In reality he saw powerless people being stepped on and powerful people who didn’t care. It is clear Adams, 48, has a healthy distaste for bullies: “There are those who try and walk through life as if they are untouchable.” The Suzuki Vitara that Saeed Noori used to run down pedestrians on December 21, 2017. Credit:Paul Jeffers Within moments Noori’s Suzuki was stationary, smashed against the tram barrier. Middle Eastern music was blaring from the radio and Noori was ranting. More than a dozen people lay injured and the off-duty policeman believed many were dead or dying. There was a smell of petrol in the air. Adams knew that in similar attacks a terrorist usually leaves his vehicle and tries to kill as many people as possible before being shot by police. “I thought if he had a knife or a gun I would try and take it from him. I also thought he might try and detonate something.”

Noori was still sitting in the driver’s seat with his seatbelt attached when Adams launched, unlocking the belt and dragging the attacker from the car. “I tried to keep control of his arms so he couldn’t detonate a bomb. I remember taking a big breath and thinking ‘if he detonates I’m screwed'. “I accepted that if this thing goes bang with me on top of him I will get it.” Noori, a big man himself, tried to struggle and Adams, an expert in Operational Safety Tactics Training, applied a chokehold that he would not release until there was no threat: “I was prepared to deal with the consequences later.” Eventually Noori appeared to lose consciousness, although Adams is not sure and believes that - like most cowards - he gave up when someone fought back.

Filled with adrenalin, a desire to protect the wounded and those who ran to help the injured, Adams was unaware that he was seriously hurt. The little finger on his right hand was badly damaged and his left shoulder smashed (it needed a full reconstruction and requires further surgery). Sixteen months after he ran towards a man honestly believing he was likely to die at the hands of a suicide bomber, he knows that - like the wounded and traumatised victims of the attack - there is work to do before he recovers. “I am mentally and physically repairing. This isn’t my first rodeo.”