Spree Murders

Martin Bryant

One such murder spree lasted two days in Port Arthur, Australia. Martin Bryant had packed a sports bag loaded with several rifles, a hunting knife, two sets of handcuffs, a rope, a large amount of ammunition, a video camera, and a container of gasoline. He had lunch at a café, and after he finished set the video camera on a nearby table and began shooting other patrons of the café with his semiautomatic rifle. He killed 20 people and injured several others, then left the café and murdered 4 more people, again wounding many others passing by. Bryant drove toward the nearby tollbooth and killed a woman and her two children walking beside the road. He drove a few hundred yards closer to the tollbooth and killed three men in a car. He approached another car with a couple inside, forced the man into the trunk of his car, and shot the woman.

Continuing his rampage, Bryant drove to the Seascape Cottage, where he fired at several cars within his sight. He then removed his guns from the car and took a male hostage inside the house and handcuffed the man to a stair rail. Bryant returned outside and poured gasoline over his car and set it on fire. He then reentered the cottage, which was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Martin, against whom he held a grudge. When police arrived to find Bryant barricaded inside the cottage, they believed he could have as many as three people hostage (the man abducted from the tollbooth and the Martins). Thus, they were cautious as to how to approach the situation. The next morning, after several telephone negotiations between the police and Bryant throughout the night, Bryant set the cottage on fire. As he ran out of the cottage with his clothes ablaze, the police captured him. In all, he had killed 35 people and injured another 18 in over 19 hours' time.

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