Hoddle Street Civilian Victims

A publicised police video on the day following the shootings, shows two Victoria Police detectives at the crime scene with Julian Knight in handcuffs and retracing Knight’s exact movements and actions of the night prior, as Knight explains to them what he did.  When asked why on a number of occasions, he repeatedly responds: “I don’t know.”

In the video, the lead detective is recorded asking Julian Knight  what he was shooting at, to clarify if it was just at passing cars or at the motorists inside.  Knight responded in the police video that he was targeting the people inside and not to wound, but to kill them.  Those that he actually wounded, he then said he “finished them off” with one or two more targeted rounds.

Knight did not know any of his targeted victims.  The victims were simply passing motorists, indeed civilians.  His targets were opportunistic, indiscriminate and random.

Knight chose the site to shoot as out of sight, propped in darkness besides the nearby busy four-laned arterial Hoddle Street.  It was a convenient five minute walk from his family home.  The shooting had not been planned in advance.  He was drunk from about a dozen beers and had access to three long arm firearms with ammuniation at his home.  It was like a real-life firing practice.  It was murder, mass murder.

Had Knight planned and targeted his Army tormentors back at Duntroon and been somehow successful, then despite the criminality and wrongness of shooting people, the public may well have adopted a different perspective and understanding of his motivations.  With such a military target, he most likely would have been shot dead on site by Duntroon personnel in retaliation.

The reported statistics of his victims were as follows:

Fatal Victims:

1. Tracey Skinner, 23 – Shot in the face
2. Johnny “John” Muscat, 26 – Shot in the face and chest
3. Vesna Markovska, 24 – Received minor wounds and was shot three times
4. Robert Mitchell, 27 – Shot in the right side of the head
5. Georgina “Gina” Papaioannu, 21 – Received minor wounds and later shot in the left side
6. Dusan Flajnik, 53 – Shot in the left side and bled to death
7. Kenneth “Shane” Stanton, 21 – Injured in the leg then shot twice.

Wounded Victims:

1. Peter Curmi – Was seriously wounded
2. Steve Wight – Was seriously wounded
3. Diane Fitzpatrick – Was seriously injured in the back
4. Danny Coldebella – Was seriously wounded
5. Andrew Hack – Seriously wounded in the left side
6. Keith Wing Shing – Received serious jaw and throat wounds
7. Jacqueline Megens – Was seriously wounded in the right shoulder
8. Alan Jury – Wounded
9. Monica Vitelli – Wounded
10. Con Vitkos – Received minor wounds
11. Rita Vitkos – Received minor wounds
12. Renata Coldebella – Received minor wounds
13. John Delahunty – Received minor shrapnel wounds to the face and left hand
14. Zoran Trajceski – Received minor wounds
15. Edward McShortall – Received minor wounds
16. Adam Skinner – Received minor glass injuries
17. John Finn – Received minor wounds
18. Colin Chambers – Was slightly injured in the right side
19. Michael Smith – Received minor wounds

Victims Not Physically Wounded but Affected:

1. Steven Mihailidis
2. Dimitrios Collyvas
3. Danny De Luca
4. Dominic Cannizzaro
5. Graham Larchin
6. Betty Roberts
7. Trevor Wilson
8. Daryl Jones
9. Keith Stewart
10. Alan Scott
11. Ralph Lockman
12. Michael Anthony
13. Trevor Smeelie
14. Gregory Elliott
15. Danielle Mina
16. Raewyn Crighton
17. Bernd Micheel
18. Dianne Arnold
19. Sand Wang
20. Michael Pearce
21. Jacqueline Langosch
22. Issac Lohman
23. Reginald Dutton
24. Dana Sabolcki
25. Sharyn Maunder
26. Mathew Morrow
27. Trevor Robinson
28. Kevin Skinner