Perth man jailed for ‘prolonged, ferocious’ City Beach highway attack
Matthew Lawson, 26, suddenly fell asleep at work after not sleeping for a week and decided to kill his colleague, leaving the demolition site armed with his claw hammer.
“I’ll take him with me, let me take him down with me,” Lawson told the foreman before getting in his car and driving to the City Beach demolition site where 31-year-old Trae Black worked.
The victim is Trae Black.Credit: 9News Perth
In a drug-induced psychosis, Lawson rushed Black and swung his hammer at his head, missing the victim as he ran away.
Black then fled onto the West Coast Highway and hid in bushes while Lawson drove around the area seven times for approximately 17 minutes.
When Black thought he was gone, he emerged from the bushes and began walking along the West Coast Highway.
However, Lawson spotted him and sped towards him, chasing him into a bank and hitting him with his car. He then got out of the vehicle laughing and hit Black’s head repeatedly with a hammer.
Black was seriously injured in the incident, his right leg was severed below the knee and his pelvis, skull and jaw were broken.
When police arrested Lawson for assault, he replied: “No, murder. Isn’t he dead? If he isn’t dead, I’ll go back and kill him.”
