41

Death on Bondi Beach: The Bizarre Death of Roni Levi

When you think of Bondi – Australia’s most iconic beach – you think of sun, sand and surf and young blond-haired men surfing the famous rip at the Tamarama end. And beautiful women (some topless) lazing around on towels, burly lifeguards rescuing drunk backpackers and children with ice-cream dripping off their chins.

If you’re a local, you might think about how hard it is to get a park on the weekend, but mostly it’s the sort of place people go for a good time and pleasant memories. Visiting Sydney and not visiting Bondi Beach is like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower.

With a strip packed with places to eat, drink and dance, or just a place to stroll around hoping to be seen, the last thing you think about is a mentally unbalanced man being gunned down on the sand not long after sunrise by two police officers – one a confirmed drug abuser. But that’s exactly what happened to 33-year-old Frenchman Roni Levi on the morning of 28 June 1997.

The story of how Bondi resident Levi came to be surrounded by six uniformed policemen at 7am on that cold winter’s morning, wet, bedraggled and confused, clearly in the grip of some sort of breakdown, brandishing a 21-centimetre-long Wiltshire StaySharp kitchen knife, began the evening before – but its roots lay even earlier than that.

Levi had come from a good family. He didn’t drink or smoke, and he wasn’t a drug user. He was married for a while, but that didn’t work out. Following his divorce, he studied at TAFE and earned money as a photographer. But friends noticed differences in Levi after he moved to Bondi earlier in the year 1997. They say his personality changed. It’s been said his mental health went into a sad decline.

Not long before he died, Levi had become involved in a difficult situation where a man insisted that he owed him money for some sports clothing. The man had been threatening Levi with violence if he didn’t pay up right away, phoning Levi constantly. No one can say for sure if this is what tipped Levi over the edge, but it’s unlikely that it helped matters. Either way, on the night of 27 June 1997, Levi was at a dinner party with friends. His behaviour seemed even more off-kilter than usual. It was so concerning, in fact, that his friends decided it was best to take him to St Vincent’s Hospital in nearby Darlinghurst for observation.

Levi waited around at the hospital but eventually became too agitated to remain there. He walked out at 4.30am. He was back at his flat by 6am – his nose smeared with blood as he stood sweating and panting and arguing with his flatmate. He grabbed the StaySharp knife and ran out the door shortly before 7am, heading for the beach.

Once there, he bolted across the sand towards the famous surf break, wading into the icy winter water while waving the knife around as if he intended to stab himself. Six uniformed police officers arrived soon after, as a crowd mainly comprising the early-morning exercise set gathered on the promenade bordering the beach, watching on in disbelief. Levi ran back up the beach and across Campbell Parade, the main road that hugs the beach. He then bolted back down to the beach and waded into the water. When he got out, he was soaked and freezing.

Grouped in a semi-circle around him, the police officers spent half an hour trying to persuade an obviously disturbed Levi to drop the knife. It was no use. He was acting erratically and showed no sign of calming down. He ignored the demands of the six officers surrounding him, telling him to disarm himself.

Then he is said to have started to approach two of the officers – Constable Rodney Podesta and Senior Constable Anthony DiLorenzo. They both shot Levi twice at relatively close range, with all four bullets hitting him. Roni Levi was rushed back to St Vincent’s Hospital but passed away two hours later.

There was an understandable uproar at what seemed a senseless and unnecessary slaying. The media and public alike questioned why six trained police officers couldn’t subdue one distressed man. After all, Levi was of average build and hardly operating at his peak. And even if shots had to be fired, why not simply aim for a shoulder or leg?

Bondi police station was besieged with phone calls for two days, asking those same questions. But still, there was no official statement forthcoming from NSW Police. Quite the contrary; it seemed like the authorities were growing irate at the public for questioning their methods. They felt it had been a life-threatening situation – how could the public make a judgement as to the best course of action? A drastic decision had to be made, they contended, and the two officers in question had made it.

The general public weren’t appeased. And then photos of the tragedy surfaced and the story took on a whole new life. French professional photographer Jean-Pierre Bratanoff-Firgoff had been on the scene that early morning, snapping away. The results were both enlightening and disturbing. They show Levi at varying distances from the six police officers, none of whom look to be in any serious danger. Then Podesta and DiLorenzo open fire right in front of the victim, only about 3 to 5 metres away.

Bratanoff-Firgoff’s photos seem to show that Levi was shot even though it could have been avoided. It appears that the victim has a jacket wrapped around his arms and back. It doesn’t look like he’s in any position to harm anyone. When questioned about the photos by journalists, Bratanoff-Firgoff said that on hearing the shots he couldn’t believe police had gunned the man down. The photographer had thought it must have all been a mistake.

Either way, Levi’s parents were understandably shocked by what had happened. They demanded Podesta and DiLorenzo be suspended immediately. But the force wasn’t ready to take such action. Instead, the two officers took extended sick leave, but remained on call. For a while there was talk that they might face charges regarding Levi’s death, but the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled that there was a lack of evidence.

Constable Rodney Podesta resigned from the force a few weeks later. Senior Constable Anthony DiLorenzo was arrested in April 1998 on suspicion of supplying or possessing drugs; he denied that he had offered protection to a known drug dealer in exchange for illegal substances. DiLorenzo was kicked out of the force 14 months later. Not long after that, Podesta was charged with attempting to receive drugs for supply. He admitted that he had been using ecstasy and cocaine in 1997 and 1998.

That was enough for the Police Integrity Commission to re-­open the Roni Levi case. The new Commission of Inquiry kicked off in November 1999, determined to find out if Podesta or DiLorenzo had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol the morning they shot and killed Levi.

Even though he had earlier claimed to have never used drugs before shooting Levi in June 1997, it was found that Podesta had made more than 120 phone calls to a drug dealer in the months leading up to Levi’s death. Not only that, but according to phone records, the dealer had called Podesta five times on the day Levi was shot.

Podesta’s girlfriend also gave evidence that he had been using a serious amount of cocaine in the early months of 1997. She added that he had visited her at about 10pm the evening prior to Levi’s shooting. He had been wearing his police uniform. He was also allegedly high on cocaine at the time.

Podesta was later sentenced to 16 weeks’ periodic detention after pleading guilty to one count of attempting to receive 3.5 kilos of cocaine for supply.

Another inquiry was launched in February 2000. It was critical of the initial Levi investigation, making particular note of the fact that the officers involved in the shooting were never tested for drugs or alcohol in the aftermath. That finding led to a ruling that there must be random testing for police officers involved in critical incidents. Capsicum spray is now deemed a better option in such circumstances as Roni Levi’s than shooting the offender. These steps have been brought in to reduce what has been termed ‘suicide by police’.

Let’s hope it works.