'You need an army to take me': Driver who allegedly killed four in CBD rampage 'stabbed brother' hours earlier

Disturbing social media messages posted by alleged Melbourne CBD car rampage driver James Gargasoulas in the days prior to the incident seem to convey ominous warnings about what was to come.

Police have alleged that hours before he rammed people on the sidewalk on Bourke Street Mall, causing five deaths and more than 25 people to be injured, Gargasoulas had stabbed his brother.

In haunting Facebook posts earlier this week, the 26-year-old driver also known as "Dimi" or "Jimmy", declared war on tyranny and predicted that the world was about to change.

"I'll take you all out just me you need a army to take me and far you have presented half a army," he wrote in one post.

"I have my answers also vision of a future that is clouded the work of Satan to face me and fail over and over amuses rather than shake me to ground."

He also ranted about the need to believe in God and his positive energy before the attack commenced in central Melbourne.

It has been confirmed that Gargasoulas was on bail when he committed the offences.

Police allege Gargasoulas stabbed his brother Angelo at a home in Windsor just hours before allegedly running down a group of people near Bourke and Queen Streets on Friday.

RELATED:
Owner of car used in CBD horror tells of moment killer driver fled with his keys

In the Windsor incident, it’s alleged Angelo was stabbed multiple times before two women intervened, with one of those women later taken hostage.

That woman managed to escape the vehicle on the Bolte Bridge, while Angelo remains in hospital with facial injuries.

Five people were later killed when a vehicle mounted the kerb in Melbourne’s CBD around 1.40pm on Friday.

Of the injured, a three-month-old child underwent emergency surgery with 10 taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital six being treated at The Alfred Hospital, and three at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Former police commissioner Christine Nixon was on the scene and said she was narrowly missed by the car by just metres.

"I turned around and saw the car. He was probably about a metre from me, I stepped back [from the road] and he continued down Bourke Street on the footpath, with people chasing him,” Ms Nixon told ABC News.

"There were a number of people on the ground, many bystanders went to help.

“[A] mother kept asking me ‘where is my baby?',” Ms Nixon told ABC news following the ordeal.

Police said Gargasoulas had been doing burnouts moments before targeting the pedestrians.

“He then turned left into the Bourke Street Mall and then he deliberately drove into the crowd, continued over Elizabeth Street over the footpath and collided with further pedestrians," Superintendent Stuart Bateson said.

In vision posted across social media, the driver can be seen hanging out the window, smoking up his tyres in front of shocked onlookers moments before the crash.

Gargasoulas was later shot by police and arrested on the sidewalk, before being taken for treatment to a non-life-threatening injury.

Premier Daniel Andrews, who cut short his holiday to get to police headquarters, commended the efforts of “ordinary Victorians” who quickly helped the injured.

“On behalf of all Victorians, I want to thank every single member of our emergency services family for the dedicated and professional way in which they have dealt in the most extreme of circumstances.

“It makes me and all of us very proud to be citizens of this great state. So we thank each and every member of the public – everyone affected and around this incident who has reached out to provide support and care and love to those who have been affected," Andrews said.

“Our hearts are breaking this afternoon, that a number of people have died, others remain in a critical condition… gravely ill in hospitals around our city.

”But we are stronger than this. We, through the work of our emergency services, the instinctive way in which Victorians have reached out to support each other, we can be confident we are stronger than this evil criminal act,” he said.

It’s further alleged the vehicle used in the Melbourne tragedy is a car belonging to 76-year-old Gavin Wilson, who used to date Gargasoulas’s mother.

Mr Wilson has told 7 News Mr Gargasoulas attacked him, set a Bible on fire and used it to burn his face before punching him in the jaw.

Gargasoulas remains in police custody, with charges yet to be laid.