The car allegedly used to kill pedestrians in Bourke Street earlier sat in a quiet western suburbs street for almost an hour as its driver ranted, witnesses say.
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Alleged Bourke Street killer charged with murder
Dimitrious "Jimmy"Â Gargasoulas, the man accused to have mowed down several pedestrians on Bourke Street in Melbourne's CBD is charged with five counts of murder.
Two new witnesses said the man was ranting in a disturbed fashion about comets, the state library bunker and government conspiracies.
Trent Schmidt and Robbie Houri told Fairfax Media a maroon Commodore was parked outside the house they were renovating in Drew Street, Yarraville, for almost an hour from 12pm.
Mr Schmidt and Mr Houri said they heard someone scream; "Hey mate, do you know what's going on?!"
"We turned around and saw the guy from the car standing at the gate. He immediately started ranting about the fact 'Do you see that in the sky?' I said 'What, the sun?' and he said 'That's not the sun, it's a comet'," Mr Schmidt said.
"I was like 'oookaaay' and Robbie and I were just agreeing with him as he was talking about the comet, and the government conspiracy and the bunker in the State Library and also the fact he was going to be on TV later that day. He was like 'You watch, I'll be on TV later that day' and 'I'm one of the good guys' and he started showing us his chain, a gold crucifix or cross or some description.
"My initial impression was he wasn't on drugs, he was very disturbed and quite disassociated from reality."
Mr Houri said; "I was just thinking 'It's Footscray'...I didn't think anything of it."
Mr Schmidt said he told Mr Houri to go inside the house while he drove around the corner, still in view of the car, and rang triple zero at 12.50pm.
"I gave triple zero an account of the fact it was a maroon Commodore, this is the licence plate number, the guy looked like (tennis player) Nick Kyrgios," Mr Schmidt said.
​"I thought he was six foot three, in his later 20s early 30s, he was talking about comets, state library and government conspiracy and the fact he was going to be on the news."
He said a few minutes later, Mr Houri, who was still at the house, rang him.
"Robbie rang me back and said 'You wouldn't believe it, they sent a helicopter'. We were half-joking, like 'Oh really, a helicopter??'" Mr Schmidt said.
He said the man started abusing the helicopter and then drove off.
Mr Schmidt said it wasn't until Mr Houri rang him later that afternoon that they connected it to the Bourke Street incident.
"It's so devastating for all of those people in the city and it's just ... horrendous," he said.
"I must say, I don't recall ever ringing triple zero before, but I'm glad I did.
"Even having rung them, you wonder what you could've done differently. Pragmatically you think if you didn't ring you'd be racked with guilt.
"But that was the best course of action was not to antagonise him and ring triple zero and let the experts deal with it."
He said while perhaps police should have blocked off Drew Street, a quiet street in the city's western suburbs, that was "all well and good in hindsight".
"Smarter people than me will be making those decisions," he said.
Police had been monitoring Mr Gargasoulas for hours before Friday's horror incident in Melbourne's city centre after his brother was critically stabbed in Windsor at 2am that morning.
He was captured in the background of a Channel 9 report on the stabbing at 8.04am, winding down the window of the maroon Holden Commodore and gesturing to reporter Neary Ty.
The Commodore was monitored by police in Chapel Street between 10am and 11.30am, where Police Association secretary Ron Iddles said it was in heavy traffic and could have been intercepted.
The car then almost took out pedestrians as it sped towards the city through a red light at the Clarendon and Whiteman street intersections with police close behind about 11.30am, according to witness Steve Dorogi.
The Holden Commodore was seen doing burn-outs outside Flinders Street station about 1.30pm before allegedly mowing down more than 35 people walking on the Bourke Street footpath.
Deputy Commissioner Andrew Crisp said it was now the role of the coroner and the courts to probe the lead-up to the tragedy.
Mr Crisp defended the force's pursuit policy on Wednesday after reports questioning why Mr Gargasoulas had not been stopped sooner, saying chases "were not like the movies" and police don't ram or shoot at fleeing cars.