Monday, December 2, 2024

Spotlight on cops after damning comments expose inaction

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Police Commissioner Col Blanch has ordered an internal investigation into the interactions police had with the ex-wife and daughter of the Floreat gunman before he murdered a mother and her teenage daughter.

Mr Blanch called a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Mark Bombara’s daughter, Ariel Bombara, released a powerful statement saying she had raised the alarm on three separate occasions about her father.

“Between March 30th and April 2nd, I spoke with police on three separate occasions to raise the alarm about my father. On each occasion, I alerted officers to my father’s guns and told them my mother, and I felt there was a real and imminent threat to our lives,” she said.

Camera IconMr Blanch called a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Mark Bombara’s daughter, Ariel Bombara, released a powerful statement saying she had raised the alarm on three separate occasions about her father. Credit: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian

After reading the statement, Mr Blanch said he had requested WA Police’s internal investigations unit to carry out an investigation into those three interactions.

“That investigation will determine what was done, what was said, what police responses were decided upon at the time, and the information that they had at the time,” he said.

“It’s important that they do this investigation thoroughly. The CCC (Corruption and Crime Commissioner) may choose to oversee that investigation. But certainly, our report to the Coroner and the Coroner’s investigation will contain all of that information.”

Mr Blanch said he and the entire police force were “extremely saddened by the tragic events of Friday, and if there’s anything that we can do to improve the way we police going forward, the internal investigation will no doubt bore those details out.”

The Commissioner confirmed that a request for a 72-hour police order had been made but was not granted because “the circumstances would not have met the threshold of a 72-hour order”.

“A police order is issued when we are concerned about an imminent threat or risk to a person. Whether or not they are staying there we have to separate those people.

“I want to remind people that this happened some seven weeks earlier to this tragedy.

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