David Cammarata and Jonathan Dick were once close friends — until that friendship ended with a brutal hammer attack and an attempted murder charge.
Mr Dick was dramatically arrested on Monday after spending more than two years on the run following the alleged samurai sword murder of his brother David at a busy Melbourne shopping centre in February 2017.
Then, last August, his old school friend Mr Cammarata was allegedly attacked by Mr Dick with a hammer as he left his home in Keilor in Melbourne’s northwest.
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It has been revealed Mr Dick had a “kill list” of associates he was tracking down, and Victoria Police and Monjon Security organised private bodyguards to protect Mr Cammarata and his young family in the wake of the attack.
But on Monday morning, Mr Cammarata spotted the 41-year-old in his work carpark in inner Melbourne.
His colleague Dion Raiola coincidentally happened to arrive at the carpark at the same time, and the pair gave chase.
The business partners managed to overpower the fugitive and restrain him in a dramatic citizen’s arrest in Melbourne’s iconic Hosier Lane before police arrived on the scene.
He has since been charged with his brother’s murder, the attempted murder of Mr Cammarata and one count of stalking.
Mr Cammarata, a father of three, has finally broken his silence on the incident, telling A Current Affair his formerly close friendship with Mr Dick came to a swift end after a bizarre disagreement over a pizza.
It was the last time they spoke before the attack in Keilor — but Mr Cammarata said in the past, he was “probably as close to (Mr Dick) as his brother”.
“At the end — oddly enough — it was mainly over a pizza,” Mr Cammarata told the program.
“He wanted a medium pizza, and I got him a large, and that’s where all hell broke loose.”
Mr Cammarata also spoke about the “traumatic” hammer attack that left him seriously wounded.
“I was hurt pretty bad and, you know, it was pretty traumatic for the family,” he told A Current Affair.
“Everyone was quite stressed out and I had fairly big wounds at the back of my head.”
Mr Cammarata also explained how the citizen’s arrest unfolded, revealing he and Mr Raiola had already discussed their chances of running into Mr Dick shortly before they spotted him.
“Oddly enough we were talking about it,” Mr Cammarata told the program.
“We’d been working slightly longer hours recently and we were talking about it, that the chance of us potentially sort of seeing him together would never happen, and it did happen, and we were both pretty shocked afterwards.”
He also discussed the relief he felt after Mr Dick was finally arrested.
“We were hugging and high-fiving after we got it done,” he said.
“It’s all over for my family. It’s a big thing.”
Police believe Mr Dick managed to evade capture for so long by hiding among the homeless community in Fitzroy in Melbourne, living in a tent and possibly relying on support from homeless agencies and taking vegetables from community gardens.
It has also been revealed the men may be able to claim a $100,000 reward that was offered by authorities for information on Mr Dick’s whereabouts.
Mr Dick will next front court in December.
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