{"id":189275,"date":"2018-11-12T04:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=189275"},"modified":"2018-11-12T04:00:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T09:00:53","slug":"australias-trolleyman-hailed-ramming-street-attacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/12\/australias-trolleyman-hailed-ramming-street-attacker\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s ‘Trolleyman’ hailed for ramming street attacker"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI don’t like to criticize people in that situation, he’s acting instinctively about what he’s looking at in front of him,\u201d Ashton told Melbourne radio 3AW. (File Photo By Diliff\/Wikimedia <\/a>commons, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SYDNEY, Australia \u2014 A homeless man who rammed a shopping trolley at a knife-wielding attacker who was threatening police is being hailed and rewarded for his actions, but he insists he isn’t a hero.<\/p>\n

Michael Rogers emerged from a crowd of onlookers during the attack Friday afternoon in downtown Melbourne, Australia, in which one person was fatally stabbed and two others wounded.<\/p>\n

Social media users have dubbed Rogers \u201cTrolleyman\u201d and an online fundraiser for him by registered charity Melbourne Homeless Collective had raised more than $72,000 ($100,000 AUD) by Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hero is humble as can be and had no idea about this fundraiser,\u201d the GoFundMe page reads. \u201cHe is amazing. We believe his efforts deserve a reward that can really help him out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In interviews with Australian media, Rogers, 46, has insisted he’s no hero. \u201cI threw the trolley straight at him, and I got him. I didn’t quite get him down, though. I’m no hero,\u201d he told Channel Seven.<\/p>\n

He also told Melbourne’s Age newspaper he had been on the wrong side of the law himself. The paper reported he had been \u201cin and out of jail\u201d for some 20 years, including a five-year sentence for aggravated burglary, and that he’d had a long history of drug use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven’t had good experiences with police,\u201d Rogers told the paper, adding his move to help on Friday was a \u201cspur of the moment\u201d decision.<\/p>\n

Somali-born Australian Hassain Khalif Shire Ali, 30, stabbed three men on the street in Friday’s attack, killing a well-known restaurateur and wounding two other men.<\/p>\n

Well-known cafe owner Sisto Malaspina, 74, died a short distance from the popular Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar he had run for more than 40 years. In a mark of his community renown, Malaspina will be given a state funeral next week. The other two men are recovering in a hospital from non-life-threatening injuries.<\/p>\n

Victoria state Police Commissioner Graham Ashton said Shire Ali had also made an \u201cunsophisticated\u201d plan for his vehicle to explode to cause many more fatalities. He had placed several barbecue gas canisters in his pickup, but they failed to ignite.<\/p>\n

Shire Ali was known to federal police and his Australian passport was cancelled in 2015 out of concern he planned to travel to Syria to fight with the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n

While Rogers won praise from the community, senior Victorian police officials were divided in their reaction.<\/p>\n

Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said Rogers’ help was appreciated by police on the scene. \u201cThere’s no doubt he acted bravely,\u201d he told ABC radio. \u201cHis assistance was greatly appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n

But later Patton’s superior, Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said while Rogers’ actions could have led to a tragic outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t like to criticize people in that situation, he’s acting instinctively about what he’s looking at in front of him,\u201d Ashton told Melbourne radio 3AW.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut certainly if a trolley had hit a police member and knocked him over and then this offender was on top of him, it could have had a tragic consequence. Luckily in this case, it didn’t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday confirmed Malaspina would be honoured with a state funeral, and that renaming a laneway near his cafe after him was also under consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cSisto Malaspina was a Victorian icon, known and loved by us all,\u201d Andrews tweeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to his family again this morning, and they have accepted my offer of a state funeral next week, with more details to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SYDNEY, Australia \u2014 A homeless man who rammed a shopping trolley at a knife-wielding attacker who was threatening police is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":189276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-trevor-marshallsea","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}