Queen Street massacre

Queen Street massacre
Surveillance camera photo of Frank Vitkovic during the shooting
Location	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°48′51.3″S 144°57′36.4″E / 37.814250°S 144.960111°E / -37.814250; 144.960111Coordinates: 37°48′51.3″S 144°57′36.4″E / 37.814250°S 144.960111°E / -37.814250; 144.960111
Date	8 December 1987 4:22 pm
Attack type	Mass murder, murder-suicide
Weapons	M1 carbine
Deaths	9 (including the perpetrator)
Non-fatal injuries	5
Perpetrator	Frank Vitkovic

The Queen Street massacre was a spree-killing that occurred on 8 December 1987 at the Australia Post offices at 191 Queen Street in Melbourne, Victoria. The attack resulted in nine fatalities, including the perpetrator, and five people injured.

Frank Vitkovic was born 7 September 1965 at 4:20 pm to a Croatian father and an Italian mother. He grew up in the Melbourne suburb of West Preston. He attended Redden Catholic College (formerly Immaculate Heart College, Preston, later renamed Samaritan Catholic College) in Preston. He started a law degree at Melbourne University in 1984 but had voluntarily discontinued that course in early 1987.

On 8 December 1987 at around 4:20 pm, Frank Vitkovic entered the building at 191 Queen Street, Melbourne, carrying a sawn-off M1 carbine in a brown paper bag. Vitkovic proceeded to the fifth floor office of the Telecom Employees Credit Co-operative where a former friend, Con Margelis, worked. Margelis was called to the counter and briefly spoke with Vitkovic, who then pulled his weapon from the bag. Margelis ducked behind a counter; Vitkovic began firing, killing a young female office worker, Judith Morris. A robbery alarm was activated by a staff member at 4:22 pm. Margelis escaped the office unharmed, and hid in the women's toilets. Vitkovic took an elevator to the 12th floor, to the Australia Post philately security section. There, Vitkovic shot and injured a man and a woman, then pointed his gun at a woman sitting at her desk, only to pan his aim to the left and shoot Julie McBean and Nancy Avignone dead. A man in the corner office on that level, Warren Spencer, was also killed.

Vitkovic then ran down the stairs to level 11, firing indiscriminately. He stormed into the computer training centre, shooting Michael McGuire at point-blank range, killing him. He then moved to the north-east corner of the office floor, cornering several office workers at their desks. Marianne Van Ewyk, Catherine Dowling and Rodney Brown were fatally shot in that area, some while hiding under their desks. Three other workers were wounded there. Several victims were shot in the head at very close range as they attempted to hide. A male office worker, Donald McElroy (who had been shot once), and Tony Gioia tackled Vitkovic, while Frank Carmody, who had been shot several times, wrestled the rifle from him. Gioia and Carmody were later awarded Australia's second-highest bravery decoration, the Star of Courage. A wounded female worker, Rosemary Spiteri, took the rifle and hid it in a refrigerator.