SYDNEY (AP) – The siege at the Sydney cafe had been going on for more than five hours and 82-year-old John O’Brien had become convinced the gunman was insane and they would likely all end up dead.
And so he made a decision, one he knew came with a cost: he was going to try to escape.
O’Brien – a former professional tennis player who played at Wimbledon – looked at the gunman who was at the other end of the cafe, barricaded behind tables and chairs. The man had forced two or three young women to stand in front of him as human shields, so police snipers couldn’t take shots at him.
O’Brien glanced up at Stefan Balafoutis, a lawyer, who was standing, as ordered, with his hands against the window. The younger man had his eyes closed.
“I said to the barrister, look, this is not going to end well, this guy will never get out of here alive, and he’s going to take everyone with him,” O’Brien told The Associated Press in the first detailed account from a hostage who was held inside the cafe.
He whispered his plan to Balafoutis. The lawyer replied: “Good idea.”
O’Brien was exhausted and was wondering at times if he was in a dream. He hadn’t eaten since early in the morning, before their ordeal began, when he’d ordered a piece of raisin toast and a cappuccino.
He thought the coffee at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place was creamy and delicious, albeit overpriced. He liked the chocolates on display, a point of difference at the cafe. He’d visit a few times a year, often after an appointment with his eye doctor like the one he’d had that morning.
O’Brien was eating his toast when 50-year-old Man Haron Monis strode in, wearing a bandanna with Arabic writing. He pulled out a shotgun. O’Brien looked at it, thinking it was the size of a tennis racket. He knew right away the situation was dire. The gunman grabbed Tori Johnson, the 34-year-old cafe manager, ordering him to lock the door. O’Brien said Monis was immediately aggressive and belligerent.
There were 17 people in the cafe that Monday who became the gunman’s hostages. Several were cafe staff in their early 20s. The customers included three lawyers and four bank workers who had popped in from nearby offices. O’Brien was the oldest while Jarrod Hoffman, a 19-year-old university student and a cafe staffer, was the youngest.
Monis ordered the customers to stand with their hands on the cafe window and to hold up a black Shahada flag with the Islamic declaration of faith written on it. O’Brien said he stood with his hands on the window for 30 minutes, or maybe 45 – it was hard to tell – before telling the gunman how old he was and saying he needed to sit down.
