28 January 2011

Axe weilding nutter shot by police

28 January 2011 | By johnboy

Police have discharged a firearm during a disturbance in Holder last night (Thursday, January 27).

At about 8.30pm ACT Policing responded to a domestic violence incident between a male and female at a unit complex in Holder.

The disturbance was taking place outside the complex when police arrived. Police witnessed a man in his 50s in possession of what appeared to be an axe. After ignoring police direction to drop the weapon, police have discharged a firearm. A single shot was fired.

The man was given first aid by the attending police officers and was later treated at the scene by ACT Ambulance Service. He was transported to The Canberra Hospital shortly after in a stable condition.

Acting Deputy Chief Police Officer Michael Chew said that the discharge of a firearm by a police officer is a rarity for ACT Policing and such an incident will be investigated.

“The community recognises that by its very nature, policing can and is a dangerous occupation. Members are trained in the use and discharging of their weapons and use-of-force options. We treat this aspect of a police officer’s responsibility very seriously and our officers are diligent in its application,” Acting Deputy Chief Police Officer Chew said.

The incident is being investigated by the AFP’s Professional Standards Unit.

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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assistantnurse2:28 am 25 Jul 11

g wiz and i thought canberra was safe!!

goquietly9:18 pm 01 Feb 11

wrong tense – it is still dragging on

Yes it certainly is. That situation is completely vexed with mental health issues. Without them the shooting would most likely have not happened, and without them the injured person would be living a much more independent life – and not morbidly obese or plagued with complicating health problems.

dvaey3:19 pm 01 Feb 11

cleo said :

S***! I used to live in one of those units, I heard they had gotten rough.

It must be all those group houses sharing joints and beers around. Or do you mean what the rest of us call rough?

Mental Health Worker9:08 am 01 Feb 11

“…an armed man who turned out to be mentally ill. The inquiries and court cases dragged on for years.”

wrong tense – it is still dragging on. The judge dealing with the matter still hasn’t handed down a decision, many months after the court hearings ended – see http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/crowley-family-holding-onto-hope/1926153.aspx – I’m not aware of any developments since then.

MHW

Ozi9:14 am 31 Jan 11

peterh said :

Tasers may not have slowed this bloke down. The member took the best option, and removed the threat to the general public and the member. not particularly nice to do, but the only option that presented at the time.

Especially as GDs don’t carry Tasers, so this option was not available anyways.

pandaman3:22 pm 30 Jan 11

It sounds like the police did the best they could to stop him without resorting to shooting him, but had to anyway. (according to the media coverage anyway) For the sake of the officers involved, I hope the fellow doesn’t turn out to have mental health issues. I’m sure we all remember a high profile case from several years back of ACT police shooting an armed man who turned out to be mentally ill. The inquiries and court cases dragged on for years.

screaming banshee12:58 pm 30 Jan 11

I’m calling shenanigans on this one. There’s no way Captain RAAF would have any mates.

I’m sure he does, they may just be busy with other issues at the moment.

peterh10:56 am 30 Jan 11

Captain RAAF said :

Thoroughly Smashed said :

Captain RAAF said :

I have a mate in the plods here, ex RAAF ADG, he’d have no trouble nailing this knobber with a pistoli. It aint hard if you know your pistols.

Congratulations, I guess?

no, no , no, ADG’s are generally wankers but some of them, a small few, are good blokes who can shoot well, my mate being one of those.

I however, run rings around him with the pistol, got the trophy to prove it. If you have time, and believe me a whacko can make the 15m between you and him very quickly, you can hit just about anything. No-one in uniform would be impressed with it taking only one shot to bring this guy down, planting one between his eyes in the situation however, would have been more impressive.

great. if you are an ADG, or blue grunt, you are going to disarm a nutter with an axe by killing him? rubbish. I would rather incapacitate than kill.

Tasers may not have slowed this bloke down. The member took the best option, and removed the threat to the general public and the member. not particularly nice to do, but the only option that presented at the time.

Mental Health Worker10:40 am 30 Jan 11

nutter??? is this a psychiatric term? maybe he was a lost lumberjack, looking for women’s clothing.

A man wielding an axe in a domestic or neighbour dispute may not be mad, he may just be very very bad.

If the AFP had planted one between the eyes, they’d have been in trouble with their bosses, as all police are trained to shoot to the torso, the largest target.

If he was “mad”, then capsicum spray or foam or a tazer may not have stopped him, unfortunately. They’re better at stopping rational people than the irrational. I guess this is why the mentally ill are over-represented in police shootings, until we as a society can work out a better way of dealing with these incidents.

No-one leaves these situations happy – neither the man with the lead implant, nor the police or other witnesses.

MHW

Darth Weston9:36 am 30 Jan 11

Deref said :

There are few cases in which a gun is an appropriate response to a situation.

Being confronted with an axe-wielding nutter, however, is one.

+1 Big time agree

Really surprised there haven’t been more comments about this incident. I heard about the event on 104.7 morning news (which explained the large number of sirens we heard the previous evening!). Was this not well reported in mainstream media?