Monash University shooting
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The Monash University shooting was a school massacre that took place at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia on October 21, 2002 in which a student shot at his classmates and teacher, killing two and injuring five.
At 11:20am on October 21, students on the sixth floor of the Menzies Building on Monash's Clayton campus reported hearing gun shots. Huan Xiang, a commerce student at the university, armed with five loaded handguns, had opened fire in a tutorial room. Two students, William Wu and Steven Chan, were killed and others seriously wounded, including Laurie Brown who required abdominal surgery. When Xiang stopped shooting and moved to switch weapons, injured lecturer Lee Gordon-Brown and a student in the room, Alaistair Boast, tackled him. Boast and fellow student Bradley Thompson were helped by a lecturer from a nearby room, Brett Inder, to restrain Xiang for fifteen minutes until police arrived while student Andrew Swann and university administrator Colin Thornby provided first aid. Xiang was deemed by police to be unfit for interview but wrote a note referring to William Wu after his arrest saying "I finally ended WW's life."
Huan Xiang was quickly reported to have 'struggled' with his classes, in particular due to not having sufficiently good English skills to succeed with his school work. The defence and prosecution in his trial agreed that he suffered from a paranoid delusional disorder. During his trial, the prosecution admitted evidence that Xiang felt the killings were his destiny. He had joined the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia in Springvale, in April 2002 in order to gain practice with weapons, and gained a handgun licence in June 2002. One lecturer, Gael Martin, told the court that she had expressed concerns about his mental state a week prior to the shootings.
On June 17, 2004 a jury found Xiang not guilty of the murder of Wu and Chan and of the attempted murder of five other people in the tutorial room on October 21, 2002, due to his mental illness. Justice Bernard Teague ordered Xiang be transferred to the Thomas Embling psychiatric hospital.
[edit] References
- Two die as gunman attacks his own class (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Two shot dead, five wounded at Monash Uni (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Man accused of uni deaths remanded in custody (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Student believed Monash killings were 'his destiny' (The Age)
- How a shooting spree changed the nation's gun laws (The Age)
- Killer sent to psych hospital (Sydney Morning Herald)
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