'Welcome to strathfield'

I was awake in bed last night- around 4pm, and all of a sudden I could feel my heart beat- it was really weird, then immediately I thought of the Strathfield massacre.
18 years ago…

We had just moved from a friendly suburban town to the suburb of Strathfield. Classified as a good area- with catholic private schools, cute federation and Victorian houses.... a place my mother had always wanted to live.

Strathfield plaza was a little shopping mall with the basics. Jessica and I were 5 years old.

At around 1:00 p.m., 33-year-old Frankum went to the Strathfield Plaza. He sat in a cafe called The Coffee Pot, where he drank a number of cups of coffee. Jessica, Mother and I were buying bread from a free-stand stall. All of a sudden a woman screamed “get down” for some bizarre reason I thought it was a bomb- Jessica thought it was a spider because right next to us the coffee shop went chaotic- people jumping on chairs, over railings, soon enough the whole place was screaming. And there he was....

At approximately 3.30 p.m., Frankum pulled a large knife from an army surplus duffel bag and stabbed two teenage girls who were sitting next to him, killing one and badly injuring the other. Blood was everywhere. Leaving the knife in the body of one of the girls, he pulled a semi-automatic rifle out of his duffel bag and shot around the cafe, killing several more people. (note- this cafe is in the open of the mall- it has no walls) He then shot the cafe's owner dead and fled into the main area of the mall.

Now the guy was right next to us. He jumped behind our counter. Mother grabbed my hand and we fled, screaming and crying... we soon realised we had left Jessica... I turn around and there is poor little Jessica standing amongst running people, blood, standing there.. Crying her heart out holding a little elephant. I can still see her playing with this little elephant with cut mirrored pieces covering its body. We run back, grab Jessica. She drops the elephant and we again bolt for the exit. We couldn’t just run out of the plaza, we nwere at the other end of the entrance. We had to run back to the car park. Now.. He was behind us.. Shooting like a mad man. People were falling to the floor. The one distinct memory I will never erase from my memory is running to the ramp, there was an elderly woman at the bottom of the ramp trying to move- she had a walking chair, she was going so slow.. We pushed right passed her... mum apologising! he was right behind us…
Running up the ramp, it felt like it would never end…

We are now in the car park.. Running for our car. Mum is frantic... she is trying to find our car!! He is now on our level, still firing shots.
We get into the car, mother tells us to duck and sit in the feet area in the back seat. He is now next to our car, he walks two cars in front. Mother finds the exit, however instead of going out the exit, she has gone down the entry... cars are coming up, she is screaming "don’t go in there! He's shooting!!!"

Frankum ran into the roof top car park and held a car owner at gunpoint and demanded that she take him to Enfield, a nearby suburb. Before the terrified woman could start her car, the police began to arrive on the scene. Hearing the approaching sirens, Frankum apologised to the woman and then got out of the car, knelt on the ground and shot himself in the head, committing suicide.
Frankum's spree had lasted 10 minutes. It felt like a lifetime. He had killed seven people and injured six

We got home... all three of us vomiting the experience out of us!
I can remember everything.

Counselling soon followed, Jess and I would have sessions together, drawing what we saw, then drawing our safe places we would like to be. I drew a gold tree. We were given meditation music to help make us fall asleep. I really hadn’t thought about it, but I had a lot of trouble being home by myself for a long time. To the age of 15, I would have huge panic attacks being home alone. I remember holding keys and phone with me at all times. Even when people called and asked for my parents, I wouldn’t say they weren’t home in fear of the person on the other end knowing I was alone.

Anyway we were so lucky! SOOOO lucky! Jessica dropped her goodluck elephant that day. She now has a collection over a 100.