Strathfield massacre

{{Infobox civilian attack

| title = Strathfield massacre

| image = Wade Frankum.jpg

| caption = Wade Frankum

| location = Strathfield

| target = Strathfield Plaza

| coordinates = {{coord|-33.8729|151.0931|display=inline,title}}

| date = {{Start date|df=yes|1991|08|17}}

| time = {{circa}} 3:30 p.m.–3:40 p.m.

| timezone = GMT+10

| type = Mass shooting, massacre, mass murder, murder–suicide

| fatalities = 8 (including the perpetrator)

| injuries = 6

| perps =

| perp = Wade John Frankum

| susperps =

| susperp =

| weapons = 50cm Bowie knife
Norinco SKS{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122390740 |title=COURTS AND THE LAW Strathfield gunman was a caring person, sister tells inquest |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=66 |issue=20,670 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=15 November 1991|page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}}

| motive = Unknown

}}

The Strathfield massacre was a shooting rampage at a shopping centre in Strathfield, Sydney, Australia, on 17 August 1991. The shooter was Wade Frankum, who killed himself as police arrived at the scene. The incident left eight dead and six wounded.

Massacre

At around 1:00 p.m., Frankum went to Strathfield Plaza, a shopping centre in the Inner West of Sydney. He sat in a café called The Coffee Pot, where he drank four cups of coffee.{{cite news |last=Gregoire |first=Paul |date=2021-11-20 |title=Remembering Strathfield, the massacre that changed Australia |url=https://thebigsmoke.com.au/2021/11/20/remembering-strathfield-the-massacre-that-changed-australia/ |work= The Big Smoke|location=Australia |access-date=2025-06-10}}

At approximately 3:30 p.m., apparently without provocation, Frankum pulled a bowie knife from an army surplus duffel bag and turned to the table behind him occupied by two teenage girls, killing 15-year-old Roberta Armstrong by repeatedly stabbing her in the back.{{Cite news |url=http://newslocal.whereilive.com.au/news/story/strathfield-massacre/ |title=Strathfield Massacre |author=Brenden Hills |date=12 August 2008|work=News Local |publisher=News Community Media |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101150938/http://newslocal.whereilive.com.au/news/story/strathfield-massacre/|archive-date=1 January 2013}}

Leaving the knife in the body of the girl, he pulled a Chinese-made SKS{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122379020 |title=Gunman held licence for $3 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=65 |issue=20,584 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=21 August 1991|page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} semi-automatic rifle out of his duffel and shot around the café, killing five more people. He then shot the café's owner dead and fled into the main area of the centre, where he killed his last victim.{{cite news |url=https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/strathfield-massacre-how-wade-frankum-killed-seven-and-injured-six-before-turning-gun-on-himself-on-august-17-1991/news-story/0b2dc758349ba16431a2ded805746c3a|title=Strathfield Massacre: How Wade Frankum killed seven and injured six before turning gun on himself on August 17, 1991|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=2 March 2015}}

Frankum ran into the rooftop car park and held a car owner at gunpoint, demanding that she take him to Enfield, a nearby suburb. Before the woman could start her car, police began to arrive on the scene with Constable Darren Stewart the first to arrive. He was shot at in his police car by Frankum from the car park rooftop, Stewart had run through the Strathfield shopping centre to engage Frankum, but, upon arriving at the carpark rooftop, Frankum shot numerous rounds into the door leading to the carpark, pinning down Stewart. Upon hearing more approaching sirens, Frankum apologised to the woman and then got out of the car, knelt on the ground, and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

Victims

Frankum's shooting spree lasted around 10 minutes. He killed seven people and injured six, none of them personally known to him.

Victims:{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122390346 |title=Man 'planned mass murder in a very public place' |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=66 |issue=20,668 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=13 November 1991|page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Roberta Armstrong, age 15
Robertson Kan Hock Voon, age 51
Patricia Rowe, age 37
Carole Dickinson, age 47
Joyce Nixon, age 61
Rachelle Milburn, age 17
George Mavris, age 51(17 August 2011). [http://www.burwoodscene.com.au/2011/08/17/strathfield-massacre-victims-remembered/ Strathfield massacre victims remembered]. burwoodscene.com.au.

=Bravery award=

Greg Read, 41, a father of three and Vietnam veteran, was awarded the Star of Courage for saving the lives of eight people during the rampage.{{cite web|title=Unsung Hero of Strathfield's Massacre Honoured |url=http://www.canberratimes.com.au/zoom/archive/rnews930328_0077_9840|website=www.canberratimes.com.au|access-date=13 June 2016}}

Perpetrator

Wade John Frankum was born in 1958 and had worked at various occupations including as a retail assistant and a taxi driver. In the apartment where Frankum lived alone,(18 August 1991). [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEEDA173CF93BA2575BC0A967958260 A Masked Gunman Kills 6 at a Mall in Australia], The New York Times police found a large collection of violent literature and video copies of violent films. One of his books was a well-thumbed copy of American Psycho and although there is no direct evidence that the controversial novel had inspired Frankum, a number of suggestions that it had done so were made in newspapers.{{cite web |last=Ellis |first=Bret |editor-last1=Groenewegen |editor-first1=Sarah |editor-last2=Groenewegen |editor-first2=Stephen |title=American Psycho |url=https://www.tabula-rasa.info/BurntToast/Issue10/AmericanPsycho.html |website=Tabula Rasa |location=Australia |access-date=2025-06-10 }} Frankum also owned a copy of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Investigators suggested that both his reading and viewing habits contributed to his motivation for the shooting.{{cite book |title=Media Mythologies |last=Lowe |first=Barry |year=1995 |publisher=University of New South Wales Press |isbn=0868400068 |page=65 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHb_VlCXDkwC}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20080216044406/https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rpp/28/ch4.pdf Mass and Serial Murders in Australia]
[http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/reliving-an-australian-massacre-only-a-few-people-seem-to-remember/news-story/646bc84c1c317654209d116eb7664ba7 Reliving an Australian massacre only a few people seem to remember]

Category:1991 murders in Australia

Category:1990s in Sydney

Category:1990s mass shootings in Oceania

Category:Mass shootings in Australia

Category:Attacks on shopping malls

Category:August 1991 in Australia

Category:Massacres in 1991

Category:Massacres in Australia

Category:Municipality of Strathfield

Category:Murder in Sydney

Category:Murder–suicides in Australia

Category:Spree shootings in Australia