Western Australia's acting state coroner has questioned what designates a priority one response by police after a Perth court heard a desperate call to Triple Zero (000) stating someone had been shot in a family violence situation was initially marked a priority two.
It is the latest of several failings to emerge from the coronial inquest this week into the Floreat double-murder suicide.
Mark Bombara, 63, fatally shot his wife's best friend Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her 18-year-old daughter Gretl in May, 2024, before turning the gun on himself.
Bombara forced his way into their Floreat home while searching for his estranged wife.
That afternoon, as the gunman threatened her mother, Gretl twice attempted to call Triple Zero and both times waited on the line for more than one minute to be put through to police, but the calls disconnected before she could talk to an officer.
The gunman's daughter, Ariel Bombara, also rang, as she and her mother heard the murders in real time while on the phone with Jennifer Petelczyc.
Ariel's desperate call was played to the court on Wednesday, revealing how she pleaded with the Telstra operator to help her as she waited on hold for police for two-and-a-half minutes.
"Please, please, please … my father, please help, please help," Ariel could be heard saying on the call.
The Telstra operator responded by saying "we're still connecting" and "we're going to change lines to get you through a bit quicker", then telling Ariel the wait was "out of my control".
When she did get through, Ariel said someone had been shot in a family violence situation, with police officers then dispatched to the house, initially as priority two.
Detective Senior Sergeant Matt Edmunds from the WA Police Internal Affairs Unit told the court it was his opinion the job should have been designated as a priority one immediately.
He said while police guidelines outlined the response time for priority one and two jobs as the same, he said there was a difference.
"It is not common to hear a P1 call go on the radio, so it would have had more of a sense of urgency," he told the court.
The fatal final minutes
Ariel's phone call was made at 4:28pm and 27 seconds on the Friday afternoon.
It was answered by police at 4:30pm and 58 seconds.
The window to save Jennifer and Gretl closed at 4:35pm and 51 seconds, when a fourth gunshot was recorded on the neighbour's security cameras.
That was seven minutes after Ariel attempted to contact police.
When asked whether officers could have arrived in time if the call was answered within the time set out in police guidelines and if the job was assigned a priority one, Senior Sergeant Edmunds responded: "It is certainly possible."
"It is possible the unit could have got there in that time … but conducted an intervention [and saved the women] … is highly unlikely," he later clarified.
Officer resigned before sacking
Earlier in the week, the inquest heard the two calls made by Gretl in the final moments of her life were disconnected before police answered.
According to police policy, an officer should have called her back or sent a team to the house to investigate after her first call dropped.
The officer who failed to return that call no longer works for WA Police.
The court heard concerns had also been raised about his professionalism and compassion when he spoke with Rowena and Ariel Bombara later that night.
They called back around 5pm seeking further information, as the mother and daughter feared for their lives and wondered if Bombara had left the property to search for them.
The court was told the police officer had been referred for disciplinary action and resigned before a meeting about his future at the force could take place.
