Through my investigations I was able to piece together the following series of events that occurred around my brother’s death.
He must not have felt right as he drove down the ramp into a shopping centre car park. Going down into the car park he did not stop in time and ran straight into the wall, passing over the concrete bumper of the car space in the process. He dialled 000 on his mobile for assistance but he couldn’t speak to the operator. The phone call, whilst shown on his mobile phone records, was never registered in the emergency system, and so no response came.
He was unable to speak coherently and was acting as if he was disorientated. He was seen walking backwards and forwards when he emerged from the car park and he walked into the low wall of the car park ramp as if he didn’t see it properly. He also walked into a concrete column. As he crossed the street heading towards a shopping plaza, he keeled over in the middle of the street, and clutched his abdomen, yelling in pain.
Inside the shopping plaza he entered a travel agent, but based on his behaviour they shoved him out. He walked up the stairs in the plaza to the area where there were various offices. He was approaching people, but they were locking their doors and turning him away. They couldn’t understand him, they were afraid he may be dangerous and so they did not help him. His speech was impaired and incoherent and he seemed disorientated. I imagine he may have felt a sense of panic because he didn’t know what was happening to him.
Dean paced up and down, he tried to speak and some words came out, some of the ones people could understand were swear words, which probably did not help with how they were viewing him. He was also heard to say “music” and “Romeo”. He walked into another office and attempted to communicate with a man who worked there. The man couldn’t understand what he was trying to say and then Dean embraced him in an effort to plea for help. The man freed himself from the hug and pushed Dean out of the office, locking the door behind him.
Dean stood there on the balcony, the blue sky above and a paved courtyard roughly eight metres below, but this is probably not what he saw. He was looking out to the street level. He pushed down on the railing with his hands and swivelled his hips over the railing like how a boy jumps a school fence expecting to land on his feet. He landed on his back in the courtyard below and never regained consciousness. He died in hospital two hours later from his head injuries.
While knowing what had happened, I still needed to make sense of what happened to my brother. I needed to find out as much information as I could to try and understand what lead him to leap over the balcony. The police reported my brother’s death as suicide, without suspicious circumstances. I felt the police had let me down. I had been brought up to believe the police were here to serve and protect the community. What happened following Dean’s death made me feel differently, and I felt betrayed.
In my state of shock giving a statement the morning after Dean died, the constable kept asking me loaded questions, implying Dean had domestic issues and used drugs. I didn’t realise until later that I had been coerced, in a sense. In my shocked and weakened state I was lead through a series of responses that painted the picture they wanted to see. The police were not interested in any of the contributing factors that played a part in Dean’s final demise. They dismissed his symptoms; his behaviour; the car crash and were not interested in talking to the two people we believe were travelling with him in the car. I felt they just wanted to dispense with the matter and not spend any more time on it.
We believed that there were other people in the car, probably two others, with Dean. While Dean was driving he had left a phone message with Romeo and Romeo had said that he could hear other people in the background. Dean was not alone on that day as he travelled. There were three pies in the car and one of the witnesses told us that after Dean had fallen a man and a woman had kneeled close to him and were encouraging Dean to get up. They used his name. The police would not let me see the CCTV footage of the incident, which I desperately wanted to see to try and identify who had been with Dean. I was very disappointed that the police did not seem interested at all in following up this lead or helping us find these people. They were in reality the last people to be with Dean. They clearly knew him and would be the only ones who could explain what was happening in the time leading up to Dean getting to the shopping plaza. Try as I might, I never found anyone who could tell me who they were.
I found the level of response to my brother’s position by the various emergency services disappointing. Several calls were made, by people at the plaza, to the police reporting the commotion. The police recorded eight phone calls and yet they did not attend the scene until more than 40 minutes had passed. The ambulance arrived before the police and that was 18 minutes after Dean’s fall. That seems a long time for an emergency. When you link this to the 000 emergency call never logged, it seemed to me as if the system had failed to protect, in actuality, my brother but also those others who felt unsafe because of his behaviour.
He must not have felt right as he drove down the ramp into a shopping centre car park. Going down into the car park he did not stop in time and ran straight into the wall, passing over the concrete bumper of the car space in the process. He dialled 000 on his mobile for assistance but he couldn’t speak to the operator. The phone call, whilst shown on his mobile phone records, was never registered in the emergency system, and so no response came.
He was unable to speak coherently and was acting as if he was disorientated. He was seen walking backwards and forwards when he emerged from the car park and he walked into the low wall of the car park ramp as if he didn’t see it properly. He also walked into a concrete column. As he crossed the street heading towards a shopping plaza, he keeled over in the middle of the street, and clutched his abdomen, yelling in pain.
Inside the shopping plaza he entered a travel agent, but based on his behaviour they shoved him out. He walked up the stairs in the plaza to the area where there were various offices. He was approaching people, but they were locking their doors and turning him away. They couldn’t understand him, they were afraid he may be dangerous and so they did not help him. His speech was impaired and incoherent and he seemed disorientated. I imagine he may have felt a sense of panic because he didn’t know what was happening to him.
Dean paced up and down, he tried to speak and some words came out, some of the ones people could understand were swear words, which probably did not help with how they were viewing him. He was also heard to say “music” and “Romeo”. He walked into another office and attempted to communicate with a man who worked there. The man couldn’t understand what he was trying to say and then Dean embraced him in an effort to plea for help. The man freed himself from the hug and pushed Dean out of the office, locking the door behind him.
Dean stood there on the balcony, the blue sky above and a paved courtyard roughly eight metres below, but this is probably not what he saw. He was looking out to the street level. He pushed down on the railing with his hands and swivelled his hips over the railing like how a boy jumps a school fence expecting to land on his feet. He landed on his back in the courtyard below and never regained consciousness. He died in hospital two hours later from his head injuries.
While knowing what had happened, I still needed to make sense of what happened to my brother. I needed to find out as much information as I could to try and understand what lead him to leap over the balcony. The police reported my brother’s death as suicide, without suspicious circumstances. I felt the police had let me down. I had been brought up to believe the police were here to serve and protect the community. What happened following Dean’s death made me feel differently, and I felt betrayed.
In my state of shock giving a statement the morning after Dean died, the constable kept asking me loaded questions, implying Dean had domestic issues and used drugs. I didn’t realise until later that I had been coerced, in a sense. In my shocked and weakened state I was lead through a series of responses that painted the picture they wanted to see. The police were not interested in any of the contributing factors that played a part in Dean’s final demise. They dismissed his symptoms; his behaviour; the car crash and were not interested in talking to the two people we believe were travelling with him in the car. I felt they just wanted to dispense with the matter and not spend any more time on it.
We believed that there were other people in the car, probably two others, with Dean. While Dean was driving he had left a phone message with Romeo and Romeo had said that he could hear other people in the background. Dean was not alone on that day as he travelled. There were three pies in the car and one of the witnesses told us that after Dean had fallen a man and a woman had kneeled close to him and were encouraging Dean to get up. They used his name. The police would not let me see the CCTV footage of the incident, which I desperately wanted to see to try and identify who had been with Dean. I was very disappointed that the police did not seem interested at all in following up this lead or helping us find these people. They were in reality the last people to be with Dean. They clearly knew him and would be the only ones who could explain what was happening in the time leading up to Dean getting to the shopping plaza. Try as I might, I never found anyone who could tell me who they were.
I found the level of response to my brother’s position by the various emergency services disappointing. Several calls were made, by people at the plaza, to the police reporting the commotion. The police recorded eight phone calls and yet they did not attend the scene until more than 40 minutes had passed. The ambulance arrived before the police and that was 18 minutes after Dean’s fall. That seems a long time for an emergency. When you link this to the 000 emergency call never logged, it seemed to me as if the system had failed to protect, in actuality, my brother but also those others who felt unsafe because of his behaviour.
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