johnson died in the process. those shots triggered the police response. they were in within seconds with flash grenades and another hostage died. that was kate dawson. she is a mother of three children. all of them under the age of 10 years. a tragic story. she was a rising young star in australia s legal circles. she had gone in there to have a coffee with a pregnant friend of hers. one report saying she died trying to protect her pregnant friend. tragic stories emerging over the next couple of days. i know that entire nation and world grieves alongside. andrew stevens, thanks. new information about the sydney gunman and the long criminal past. officials say he was out on bail for a sexual assault committed 12 years ago. he was charged as accessory in the murder of his wife and
killed during a siege that lasted almost 17 hours. a 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old mother of three. we re getting confirmation of that. the lone gunman, a man who is 50 years old, he was killed by commandos and police. he was acting alone and people really feeling a sense of anger after learning that he fled iran back in 1995. and the australian government then granted him political asylum. let s recap the events. heavily armed australian police and special forces stormed a sydney cafe firing their weapons and tossing in flash grenades. police shot and killed the lone gunman, ending a terrifying nearly 17-hour siege. they believed at that time if they didn t enter there would have been many more lives lost.
movie plot. it s tuesday, december 16th. announcer: from abc news, this is world news now. good morning to you all. i m t.j. holmes. i m reena ninan. we begin with the end to the 16-hour siege in australia. heavily armed police storming the downtown cafe in the middle of the night. when it was over, the gunman and two of his hostages were dead. the two hostages, katrina dawson, 38-year-old lawyer and mother of three, and 34-year-old tori johnson, the cafe manager who reportedly died trying to wrestle the gun away from the attacker. abc s david wright at the scene. reporter: after the 16-hour standoff, the dramatic rescue took less than a minute. australian police tossing flash grenades and storming the cafe. fiery end to a crisis that began at 9:45, just blocks from the
drama. a self-proclaimed muslim cleric, apparently inspired by isis, holding 17 people captive in downtown sidney, australia. it all came to an explosive end with a series of flash grenades and a barrage of bullets. the gunman and two hostages are dead. we re covering all angles of the breaking news with our correspondents, our guests. full coverage coming up this hour. cnn s anna coren in sidney has the latest. reporter: police storm a cafe in sidney, australia filled with hostages held for nearly 17 hours. stun grenades are thrown into the building. gunfire erupts and the battle lasts for almost five minutes. through the windows, flashes of gunfire and stun grenades exploding. hostages can be seen fleeing the cafe in groups. one man runs forwards police
the police barricades gloenare marines dressed in uniforms. olson served two duties in iraq during which he turned against the war and began speaking out. other protesters are nearby when police decide to act. we were in the intersection and it was actually fairly calm. and then all of a sudden the explosions went off and the tear gas was all around us. protester ernest doty is there. it got very violent very quickly. it just got really chaotic. in addition to tear gas, police also fire bean bag projectiles and flash grenades. both considered non-lethal crowd control measures. people of course started panicking. and to the right of me, i saw scott olson getting hit. i didn t know who he was at this