WA’s corruption watchdog has launched an investigation into how a man who shot dead two women in Floreat last year was able to own the firearms he used to commit the murder.

Mark Bombara was a legal firearms owner when he murdered his wife’s best friend Jennifer Petelczyc and her teenage daughter Gretl in their home last year before turning the gun on himself.

He had been looking for his wife and daughter.

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An internal police investigation found eight officers did not perform their duty in the lead-up to the shooting.

In a report tabled in parliament, the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) said it had asked WA police to investigate whether officers had failed to properly review Bombara’s suitability to hold a gun licence, but Police Commissioner Col Blanch declined a separate probe.

Police proposed to instead prepare a single report on all issues related to the murders, including his firearms, which the CCC disagreed with.

“The commission has therefore commenced its own full investigation into the allegation of police misconduct in respect of Bombara’s firearms licence,” the report reads.

Corruption and Crime Commissioner John McKechnie said he took that step because: “The police investigation was not going down avenues that we considered important.”

Licence should not have been renewed

Authorities have previously said Bombara held 11 firearms on a recreational licence and two handguns on a collector’s licence.

Mr McKechnie said it was the two collector’s handguns which Bombara had with him at the Floreat home which his agency’s investigation would focus on.

He said those weapons were acquired many years ago under “a sentimental criteria”.

Corruption and Crime Commissioner John McKechnie on

Mr McKechnie says the CCC is focusing on the two handguns. (ABC News: Kema Johnson)

“It was renewed in 2009. It should not have been,” Mr McKechnie said.

“He should not have had [the] handguns.”

The investigation was needed to establish “whether there are other Mr Bombaras about,” Mr McKechnie said, adding the CCC’s view was that police had the power to take away his firearms but did not.

Decision makers ‘left or retired’

Commissioner Blanch said he understood the process for dates back to 2005.

“The decision makers at that time have all left or retired from Western Australia Police,” he said.

“I am not able to investigate misconduct of former officers … however, the CCC can investigate both past and present police officers for misconduct.”

Copy of Police Commissioner Col Blanch

Police Commissioner Col Blanch says the CCC will be able to investigate former police officers as well as serving members of the force.  (ABC News: Lauren Smith)

Mr McKechnie said the probe was not “a hunt for scalps”.

“This is an attempt to find out what happened so that the safety of the community can be enhanced,” he said.

New legislation ‘right for WA’

At the time, the government said Bombara would have found it much harder to own firearms under laws currently being phased in because they do away with recreational licenses and tighten the rules around collector’s licences. 

Warnings ‘broken system’ led to Floreat murders

The WA Labor government has put tackling family and domestic violence at the top of its agenda. In spite of this, eight police officers did not perform their duties in lead-up to the Floreat murders, according to an internal report.

Police Minister Reece Whitby said the new legislation was “what’s right for WA”.

“I welcome any review of WA police’s old systems, which will ensure our new reforms address any system failures of the past,” he said.

The WA police investigation comprised four parts, Commissioner Blanch said, including a coronial inquest, the internal review completed earlier this year, and an investigation into Bombara’s suicide in police presence.

“There is also an investigation that WA police have conducted, and are conducting, into the circumstances of Mark Bombara’s firearms licence for some 44 years,” he said.

“Each one will be provided to the coroner.”

Bouquets of flowers outside the Petelczyc home.

The two women were slain in May last year at their home. (ABC News: Julian Robins)

The CCC report also reviewed the internal police investigation, concluding the findings made by WA Police and the actions taken in response were “reasonably open”, with no need for the CCC to intervene.

Investigation welcomed

The CEO of the Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing welcomed the CCC investigation.

Alison Evans said the probe could play an important role in preventing similar family and domestic violence incidents.

“If there are lessons to be learned in the circumstances in which Mark Bombara was granted access to a firearms licence and continuing access to that licence, then we must learn them,” she said.

Alison wears a black dress as she sits on a park bench

Ms Evans hopes the investigation will result in better outcomes for family and domestic violence victims. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)

Ms Evans said she understood the police investigation was comprehensive and said the CCC probe was justified.

“It’s the role of the of the CCC to support public sector agencies, including WA Police, to act with integrity and also to support them to minimise and to manage serious misconduct.”

She said the centre was confident firearm reforms would address a lot of the issues around perpetrators of family and domestic violence having access to them.