She warned police at least four times that her father had guns. At the Floreat inquest, his daughter apologised to the family he destroyed

The last day of evidence at the inquest into one of Perth’s worst family violence killings was given over to the people who survived it.

Ariel Bombara told Acting State Coroner Sarah Linton that her father, Mark Bombara, was a “devious, ruthless manipulator” who treated her mother as his property. When he could not find his estranged wife, she said, he decided that killing her best friend would be the “next best punishment”.

In May 2024, Mark Bombara, 63, went to the Floreat home of Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, Rowena Bombara’s closest friend, looking for his wife. He shot dead Ms Petelczyc and her 18-year-old daughter Gretl before taking his own life. Ms Petelczyc’s other daughter, Liesl, was out at a babysitting job.

Ariel Bombara apologised to Liesl Petelczyc in court, saying her mother and sister did not deserve to die and that the family had been let down.

What did she tell police, and when?

She told the inquest she warned officers at least four times that her father was a real and imminent threat and had access to guns. The warnings came weeks before the killings, when she helped her mother move out of the family home in April 2024. She said she would have done anything to make police believe them and take his weapons away.

She said she had thought about that day every day for two and a half years, and was sorry she could not protect her mother better. Her mother, she said, heard her best friend being killed over the phone.

The coroner said there was “not a dry eye” in the room after the statement.

What did Rowena Bombara say?

Speaking publicly for the first time since the killings, Rowena Bombara said she was heartbroken by the loss of Jennifer and Gretl. She said Gretl “had a wonderful sense of humour” and a whole life ahead of her.

She told the inquest she never stayed at Ms Petelczyc’s home because she feared her husband and knew what would happen if he found her.

The court has suppressed images of Rowena Bombara and Liesl Petelczyc.

What has the inquest heard about the police response?

On Thursday, Detective Senior Sergeant Matt Edmunds of WA Police’s Internal Affairs Unit told the inquest that the Triple Zero job should have been priority one from the start. It was first sent as priority two, even though the caller reported a shooting in a family violence situation.

He said it was “certainly possible” officers could have arrived in time, but that an intervention saving the two women was “highly unlikely”. The inquest also heard that two Triple Zero calls from Gretl disconnected before police answered, and that the officer who failed to call her back resigned before a meeting about his future.

A WA Police internal review found appropriate action was not taken before the killings, and eight officers have been disciplined. The review found police did not do enough to check whether Mark Bombara was a fit and proper person to keep a firearms licence, including on medical grounds.

How did he have 13 guns?

Mark Bombara held his firearms legally: 11 on a recreational licence and two handguns on a collector’s licence. The Corruption and Crime Commission opened a full investigation in June 2025 into how he obtained and kept his licence. The inquest is also examining whether he should have been licensed at all.

The killings were followed by an overhaul of WA’s gun laws, passed by Parliament in late 2024, capping how many firearms most licence holders may own and requiring health checks.

Why does it matter beyond Perth?

Family violence killings that follow repeated warnings to police are a pattern coroners across Australia keep returning to. This inquest tests two questions every state faces: how police judge the risk when a family member raises the alarm, and how quickly guns are removed once they do.

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