The brother of a mother who was murdered along with her daughter has blamed WA police and the government for failing to stop Mark Bombara’s murderous attack, after they were warned about him on three separate occasions.
Dennis Harvey expressed his anger over the double murder of his sister, Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her daughter, Gretl, 18, during an interview with the AB C.
Bombara killed both women at his home in Floreat on May 24 while searching for his ex-wife, a good friend of Petelczyc, who had left him weeks ago and had been staying at his house.
After the attack, it was revealed that Bombara’s daughter Ariel and her mother had warned WA Police that he was dangerous and possessed several weapons.
“I spoke to the police on three separate occasions to raise the alarm about my father,” he said in a statement.
“On each occasion, I alerted the officers about my father’s weapons and told my mother, and I felt there was a real and imminent threat to our lives.”
‘I specifically mentioned that there was a Glock pistol that was missing. It is my understanding that this would ultimately be one of the weapons my father used to take the lives of two innocent women.
Dennis Harvey, the brother and uncle of Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc who were murdered
Petelczyc, 53, and her daughter, 18, were murdered by Mark Bombara at their Floreat home in Perth on May 24.
Tragically, Bombara kept his weapons and used the Glock to murder the Petelczycs.
On Sunday, WA Premier Roger Cook announced new gun laws that would automatically take guns away from anyone accused of domestic violence.
But Harvey, a gun owner, couldn’t understand why police didn’t use their existing powers to remove Bombera’s weapons.
He said WA’s Firearms Act already allowed police to confiscate any gun or ammunition if an officer believes leaving it behind could cause harm.
Harvey said these laws should have been applied to Bombara as soon as his family raised concerns about his safety.
“The government seems to have taken damage control measures and wants to make some noise, but they totally let me down and they totally let my family down, especially when they had a system to take away firearms,” he said.
“I am not going to commit crimes with the police, nor with the ground agents, nor with the office teams,” he stated.
‘There appears to be a systemic failure at the top end. The Prime Minister and, in particular, the Police Minister have a lot to answer for.’
Bombara’s daughter Ariel (pictured) said police ignored her family’s warnings about her father in the lead-up to the double murder-suicide.
Mark Bombara, 66, should never have been allowed to keep his 13 registered guns after his family told police they were concerned about his worsening behavior, Harvey said.
Harvey also revealed that he never heard back from police officers after requesting a welfare check for his family the night of the shooting.
He tried calling the house but got no answer, so he called the police, who told him they would contact him if his family had been hurt.
The police never called again, even after he called them a second time the next morning.
He only found out about the incident when his surviving niece, Liesl, answered the phone and confirmed what had happened.
Harvey said his sister was a “brilliant and exceptional” person and that Gretl had been a “young, blossoming teenager.”
