TRUE CRIME GOLD COAST:
THE DAY A SATANIST STARTED SHOOTING IN BURLEIGH
“GONE hunting, love Rodney, XXXXX”.
Satanist Rodney John Dale, 26, wrote that note to his girlfriend before carving 666 into the webbing of his hands, smearing the word ‘SATAN’ in blood on the wall of his Burleigh Heads unit, picking up a balaclava, a .223 semi-automatic rifle and a shotgun, and unleashing hell fire.
He was dubbed ‘The Satanic Slayer’ and he thought he would achieve immortality by shooting people and following Satan.
April 7, 1990 – a quiet Saturday afternoon in Burleigh Heads. Kids were playing in the street, a wedding party was heading off for their vows and about 100m away the Bundaberg Rum Surf Masters were being held.
People were going about their day ... then shots started ringing out.
Three weeks before that afternoon, Dale had quit his job as a panel beater and begun planning a massacre.
He bought the rifle and put together his plan, a plan that would cost one woman her life while seven other people would also be gunned down.
It was to be 15 minutes of madness.
About 4pm, Dale walked on to his balcony and began firing at people on the street and a nearby caravan park. His shots found their mark with one person hit. He fired 44 times from the balcony.
Witnesses at the time described him as looking like Rambo – he wore two gun belts, one around his waist, the other slung over his shoulder, and he was dressed all in black.
He then left his Tweed St unit and wandered down to the street, opening fire at a woman who had gone on to her balcony to see what was going on. Shots narrowly missed her, she was showered her in chunks of
concrete, her unit peppered with bullets.
He walked down Tweed St, then on to the Gold Coast Hwy, shooting both guns indiscriminately, taking off his balaclava.
Witnesses described him laughing like a maniac.
He was heard yelling “children of Satan” and “we’ll win, we’ll win”.
Drew Fisher was working as security at the nearby Surf Masters and, with fellow guard John Gooch, rushed to the scene when they heard the shots.
“He was screeching with laughter from the moment he opened fire,” Mr Fisher said at the time.
“It was a crazed, madman’s laugh.”
Mr Fisher and Mr Gooch were carefully moving in behind Dale when they saw a police officer come down the highway.
That officer was Sergeant Bob Baker from Burleigh Heads police station. He had heard the shots from the nearby station and ran towards the danger.
“I was annoyed because my coffee was going cold,” Sgt Baker joked at the time.
But it was no laughing matter. What Sgt Baker did saved countless lives and brought down a man at the height of a rampage, a gunman with plenty of ammunition left.
“I heard shooting and immediately grabbed a gun,” he said.
He walked across the Gold Coast Hwy and saw Dale shooting.
“I called to the bloke to put down the gun but he started firing at me,” he said at the time.
“I don’t know why he didn’t hit me. He had a shotgun and normally you wouldn’t miss with those.
“I knew if I fired there was no one else I could hurt because he was standing in front of an empty social security office.
“My main worry was that his shots were going past me towards the pub which was full of people.’’
Sgt Baker fired on Dale, hitting him in the arm with his fourth or fifth shot. He ran towards Dale as he was trying to reload and hit him in the back of the head with his revolver.
Security guards Drew Fisher and John Gooch then ran to his aid and helped wrestle Dale to the ground.
During the chaotic 15 minutes before Dale’s capture, elderly couple Kathleen and Llewellyn Lewis were going for a drive to have a drink when their car had bullets rain down on them. Both were hit. Mrs Lewis, aged 77, died. Her husband survived.
A wedding party’s limousine was riddled with bullets. The driver, Raymond Davis, 61, was shot in the arm and hand. Bridesmaid Mandy Winter, 21, was shot in the leg.
Also wounded were Betty Brodby, 66, shot in the thigh; and John Bristow, 27, Jessie Nowlan, 72, and Thelma Harber 75.
It was revealed in court in July, 1990 that during a recorded interview with police Dale had told detectives he had thought about the rampage for years and that “it was something he had to do”.
He said he “didn’t want to kill women or kids”, but he told police “he knew he had to kill someone.”
In a bizarre explanation for why he wore a balaclava, he told police it was in case he shot someone he knew.
In July 1991 in Brisbane’s Supreme Court, Dale pleaded guilty to murdering Kathleen Lewis and the attempted murder of 13 other people.
Justice Brian Ambrose sentenced Dale to life in prison on each of the 14 counts, describing the crime as “bizarre.”
“The fact that others were not killed was more a matter of luck than design on your part,’’ he said.
Justice Ambrose said he doubted Dale would ever be considered for parole if he held to his belief in Satanism.
Outside court, Sgt Baker said that he was not a hero and had just done his duty.
“It was the biggest and heaviest thing I’ve ever been involved in,’’ he said.
“It’s still hard to say what went through my mind.
“He fired three shots at me. I could feel them lift my shirt but he missed.’’
At the time of Dale’s sentencing, the grieving husband of Kathleen Lewis, Llewellyn, who was also wounded in the rampage, said Dale should be given the death penalty.
“I believe in an eye for an eye – anybody who kills someone else should face the death penalty,’’ Mr Lewis said.
“He’ll get TV to look at, he’ll have his meals provided for him – not only that, taxpayers pay for that and I’m a taxpayer.”
Rodney Dale is still behind bars, currently serving time at the Borallon Training and Correctional Centre north of Ipswich.
I DON’T KNOW WHY HE DIDN’T HIT ME. HE HAD A SHOTGUN AND NORMALLY YOU WOULDN’T MISS WITH THOSE
SGT BOB BAKER (PICTURED)