January 2017 Melbourne car attack

On 20 January 2017, at approximately 1:30 pm AEDT, a car was deliberately driven into pedestrians along Bourke Street in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. Six people were killed and 26 were seriously injured. The driver, James "Dimitrious" Gargasoulas, was in a drug-induced psychosis at the time of the attack.

In the days prior, Gargasoulas had been charged over a November 2016 police pursuit and granted bail for a court date on 20 January. On 18 January he attacked his mother's ex-partner with a burning Bible and stole his maroon 1995 Holden Commodore. In the early hours of 20 January, after using methamphetamine, he stabbed his brother in the head and chest, leaving him in critical condition, and took his pregnant girlfriend hostage before she was released at South Wharf.

Gargasoulas was captured on footage driving erratically near Flinders Street Station, where two men attempted to stop him by striking the windscreen with a baseball bat. He then drove north on Swanston Street's footpath toward Bourke Street Mall, turning onto Bourke Street's southern footpath and striking more than 20 pedestrians. The vehicle was stopped outside 555 Bourke Street through mechanical failure and being rammed by a Victoria Police vehicle. Officers from the Critical Incident Response Team shot him in the right arm and tasered him before arrest.

Victims included a 10-year-old girl and a three-month-old baby boy, along with four adults aged 22 to 33. The sixth victim, a 33-year-old woman, died on 30 January after being hospitalised. A memorial was held at Federation Square on 23 January, and a permanent memorial garden was later established with donations to the Bourke Street Fund approaching AU$1,000,000.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton dismissed claims the attack was terrorism-related, describing it as connected to an earlier stabbing that escalated into a crime spree. A coronial inquest into Gargasoulas's bail release and police conduct was held between November 2019 and February 2020; in November 2020 the Coroner criticised Victoria Police's negotiation efforts as amounting to "nothing more than two phone calls and bizarre text messages."

Legally, Gargasoulas was charged with murder on 23 January 2017 and, after being found fit to stand trial in October 2018 despite a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, was found guilty in November 2018 of six counts of murder and 27 counts of reckless conduct endangering life. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 46 years. Medical evidence indicated he was suffering drug-induced psychosis with paranoid delusions at the time but remained aware his actions were wrongful.

In response, Victoria's bail laws were reviewed and amended in 2018, a Night Court was established, and in October 2019 Victoria Police introduced Australia's first "hostile vehicle" policy permitting tactical responses, including lethal force, to vehicle-based attacks.