Cash pours in for homeless ‘trolley man’ who battled terror attacker

Melbourne, November 12

Donations poured in Monday for a homeless man dubbed “trolleyman” for his attempt to use a shopping cart to halt last week’s deadly lone wolf terror attack in Melbourne.

An online GoFundMe campaign set up to help Michael Rogers after video of his bid to stop Friday’s attack went viral surged past AU$100,000 (US$72,000) Monday, more than double the target of AU$45,000.

As of early Monday morning, AU$104,790 had been contributed to the fund by more than 3,700 people.

“I was scared, I was scared for myself,” Rogers told Channel Seven television following the incident, when Hassan Khalif Shire Ali went on a stabbing rampage in central Melbourne, killing one man and wounding two others before being fatally shot by police.

Video taken by passers-by shows Rogers repeatedly pushing a metal shopping cart toward Shire Ali as he wielded his knife against two policemen trying to subdue him.

“I have seen the trolley to the side, so I’ve picked it up and I ran and threw the trolley straight at him,” Rogers said.

“I did that motion ... quite a number of times, but it just wasn’t getting him down.” Rogers insisted he was “not a hero, but I feel that I’ve probably saved some lives, maybe.” Police said Shire Ali, a 30-year-old Somalia-born Australian, was inspired by the so-called Islamic State, but did not have a direct link to the jihadist group and seems to have acted on his own.  — AFP