Tweed Head resident Hugh Garnar says watching the man who allegedly carjacked him at knifepoint being taken down by heavily armed police in a shopping centre car park was "like a scene from The Matrix".
The flow-on effects of the traumatic event for a young family trying to manage the medical needs of a four-year-old who requires regular hospital trips for cancer treatment have been immense.
Add to that a mother in remission from thyroid cancer and a lack of comprehensive car insurance due to the burden of ongoing medical costs.
But the series of life-altering events has not stopped the Garnar family from campaigning for more police and law reform in a bid to spare others from similar ordeals.
The seriousness of Saturday night's events – and the realisation they could have resulted in a potentially fatal outcome – is not lost on Mr Garnar.
'Everything slowed down'
He had gone to the Tweed Mall Shopping Centre for groceries before a late-night gym session.
When he went to return to his car, he heard a low-flying helicopter.
He said a man in a hat, mask and vest – who he initially mistook as an undercover police officer – stopped in front of his car.
"He pulled a knife and was proceeding to come towards me in a slashing motion and he was saying, 'Don't, don't — I'll kill you,'" Mr Garnar said.
The masked man waved to a young woman and the pair jumped into Mr Garnar's car and reversed, because they had parked themselves in, Mr Garnar said.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mr Garnar then saw vehicles with bull bars, full of police wearing vests, stream into the car park.
"There was about three cars ramming our family car," he said.
"It just reminded me of the movie The Matrix where everything slowed down.
"I just heard tyres screeching and the crumpling of a car.
"Once he was trapped, they were banging to smash the windows and yelling and there were guys with rifles and shotguns.
Police have since arrested and charged a man, 26, and woman, 20, who they allege were involved in a string of aggravated armed robberies across Queensland and New South Wales on Friday and Saturday.
Police alleged the pair were driving a stolen Porsche and were in possession of a firearm.
No car for hospital run
Two days after the incident, the Garnars' four-year-old son, Mason, who has a rare form of cancer called Langerhans cell histiocytosis, suffered a critical medical episode and had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance.
Alexandria Garnar said it was scary realising they had no way of getting their son to hospital.
"Usually in those instances I'm able to quickly bundle him up in the car and take him straight to our local hospital to get him seen immediately and then they determine whether or not they're going to keep him or get him sent to the children's hospital," she said.
"But [on Monday] night we didn't have that option — we didn't have the car and I think that's when it really hit me.
"I became really really angry and irritated at the fact that these people have disrupted our lives so immensely and put our son's life at such huge risk."
The following day, Mason had an oncology appointment in Brisbane.
Mrs Garnar said the RSL came to the rescue with a bus, but they knew the overwhelming generosity of the community was not a long-term solution.
In a statement, Queensland Police said members of the public were able to apply for financial restitution in incidents where there is property damage, but Mrs Garnar said it was unclear whether or not her family would be successful.
Push for more police
Following her husband's carjacking, Mrs Garnar wrote to the Tweed Mayor, councillors and state parliament representatives calling for more police on the border towns of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta, as well as harsher penalties for crimes likes these.
Mrs Garnar said it was disappointing that Coolangatta police station was not open 24 hours.
She said the local officers did a good job, but she would like to see more of them.
"There's a lot of crime here," she said.
"There's not a morning we don't wake up to one of the community pages [saying] someone has stolen something, someone's trying to break into somewhere, someone's been assaulted.
Mrs Garnar said the family had received countless offers of lifts and to borrow cars, and that a GoFundMe page had been set up to support them.
"It's been very humbling to have a community rallying behind us," she said.
