By Rebecca Thurlow And Lucy Craymer
SYDNEY--Monday started as any other day for Sydney barrister
Katrina Dawson and café manager Tori Johnson. Less than a day later
both were dead, killed at the end of a 16-hour siege that gripped
the world.
Ms. Dawson had gone to the Lindt Chocolate Café, near the
Phillip Street legal firm where she worked, at Eight Selborne
Chambers, with colleague Julie Taylor.
Ms. Dawson was there at 9:45 a.m. when 50-year-old Man Haron
Monis, a self-proclaimed Shiite cleric with a history of run-ins
with Australian law enforcement, walked in with a gun and took 17
people hostage including Mr. Johnson and at least two other Lindt
staff members.
At a memorial service at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney to
commemorate the victims, Archbishop Anthony Fisher said both Ms.
Dawson and Mr. Johnson had acted heroically.
"Reports have emerged this morning of the heroism of the male
victim of this siege. Apparently seeing an opportunity, Tori
grabbed the gun. Tragically it went off, killing him but it
triggered the response of police and eventual freedom for most of
the hostages," Archbishop Fisher said.
He said it had also emerged that Ms. Dawson was shielding her
pregnant friend from gunfire.
The 38-year-old was herself the mother of three children--Sasha,
Oliver and Chloe--with her husband Paul Smith. She balanced
motherhood with a successful law career and a number of voluntary
roles and helped senior students at Ascham School, an all-girl
school she attended, preparing for mock trials earlier in the
year.
"Katrina was one of our best and brightest barristers who will
be greatly missed by her colleagues and friends," said Jane
Needham, the president of the NSW Bar Association, in a
statement.
The Redfern Legal Center, which provides legal services for
marginalized and disadvantaged people, said in a post on its
Facebook page that Ms. Dawson would be remembered as one of its
best volunteers.
In an outpouring of grief, hundreds of people lay flowers in
Martin Place Tuesday in honor of the victims.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the hostages were "decent
innocent people who got caught up in the sick fantasy of a deeply
disturbed individual".
"It is about an innocent thing as anyone could do, to go and
grab a cup of coffee before the working day has fully started," Mr.
Abbott told journalists in Sydney.
Mr. Johnson, 34, had been working for Lindt at the café for 2
1/2 years. He also got a certificate in retail management from the
Australian Retailers Association last year, according to what
appeared to be Mr. Johnson's LinkedIn page.
His parents released a statement via Australian broadcaster
Channel 9, saying, "We are so proud of our beautiful boy Tori, gone
from this earth but forever in our memories as the most amazing
life partner, son and brother we could ever wish for."
Lindt called Mr. Johnson a dedicated professional who built a
great rapport with his customers and was much loved by his
co-workers.
"By nature he was a perfectionist and he had a genuine passion
for the hospitality industry and people. He was a really important
part of our management team in Australia and his loss is absolutely
tragic," the statement on the company's Facebook page said.
Peter Manettas, whose father, Nick, owns Adria Rybar & Grill
where Mr. Johnson worked for six years, described Mr. Johnson as a
leader who always passed credit for successes on to the staff that
he managed and was incredibly proud of his family.
The names of the other hostages haven't been officially
released. Two Westpac Banking Corp. staff members and two employees
from the Australian bank's technical partner Infosys had been
caught up in the siege.
This included ICT project manager Marcia Mikhael, whose husband
George Mikhael posted a message on his Facebook page saying she was
recovering well in the hospital.
It wasn't possible to directly reach Ms. Mikhael or the families
of Mr. Johnson or Ms. Dawson, nor to independently verify postings
on Facebook and LinkedIn.
New South Wales Police said three women who had all received
gunshot wounds were in a stable condition, a 39-year-old policeman
who received a minor facial injury had been treated at hospital and
discharged, while two pregnant woman had been assessed for health
and welfare purposes.
Write to Lucy Craymer at Lucy.Craymer@wsj.com and Rebecca
Thurlow at rebecca.thurlow@wsj.com
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