Inquiry to be conducted after two women were killed Perth
Western Australia’s police commissioner says there will be an internal inquiry into how officers responded to warnings about a man who shot two women in a Perth suburb. A daughter of the gunman says she and her mother believed their own lives were at risk and had warned police about his firearms.
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00:00 Mark Bombara shot Jennifer and Gretel Patelchus in their Floriade home on Friday. He also
00:07 killed himself. Ariel Bombara said she and her mother had fled the family home to escape
00:13 an abusive situation, and had a police escort to collect some belongings in early April.
00:19 This was the third occasion we warned police about my father's guns. An officer said, "Oh,
00:26 don't worry, we know all about the guns." And when he called for backup, he warned his
00:31 fellow officers to wear bulletproof vests. She said several officers had been approached
00:36 and told about her father's guns, but she felt ignored. By that point we felt completely
00:42 helpless and I had to focus on getting mum to safety. I did everything I could to protect
00:49 my mother, and when my father couldn't find us, he murdered her best friend and her best
00:55 friend's daughter. The police commissioner held a press conference after Ms Bombara made
01:00 her statement. This is something that I know the whole of Western Australia is grieving
01:04 over, including the police officers and the first responders on the night who attended.
01:11 There will be an inquiry into the interactions Ariel Bombara and her mother had with police.
01:16 There will be a full investigation into what was said and what was done. One thing I don't
01:21 want to do is add to the grief of people very close to the families impacted on this investigation.
01:28 The commissioner has confirmed that guns could be taken from an owner in the absence of a
01:32 violence restraining order. Ariel Bombara has committed to campaigning against domestic
01:37 violence, and she has her local federal MP on side. So I've spoken to Ariel and I'll
01:43 be working with her to try to make something positive come out of this horrific event so
01:50 that we can actually make Australian women safer. Ms Cheney says if a woman has a genuine
01:55 fear there needs to be a response that keeps them safe.
01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]