🚨 BREAKING NEWS — Police Speak Out After Sydney Man Is Left Fighting for His Life in Officer-Involved Sh00ting — A New Detail Is Raising Major Questions
The man ‘charged’ at an officer on his narrow balcony as she fired her gun, police said.
Police have detailed the moments which unfolded before an officer shoot and critically injured a Sydney resident on Thursday.
The 27-year-old man was shot twice in the torso and once in the arm on Lawson St in Fairfield and was taken to hospital fighting for life about 7.30pm.
A member of the community had called police over a “violent disturbance in a unit,” NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden said at a press conference on Friday.
Police arrived a few minutes later and could hear “the sound of agitated voices coming from inside” the first-floor unit, he said.
“As they got to the unit door, they could see blood over the threshold of the doorway and inside the unit.”
It is currently unclear whose blood covered the doorway.
In the minutes before police arrived, two other men interacted with the 27-year-old man outside the unit and went up to the residence, CCTV has since revealed.
The footage also shows the 27-year-old man climb over the balcony in front of his unit and impact the ground, before returning to the unit, McFadden said.
“The circumstances of why that took place and whether that was a voluntary act by the male, or whether it was in response to the other two males, will form part of the investigation,” he said.
The nature of their interaction remains unclear, but McFadden said that it was “likely to be the stimulus” behind the community member’s triple-0 call.
The two other men were not in the unit when police arrived, McFadden said, adding that police did not know about the interaction with the other men until CCTV footage was collected as part of the ongoing investigation.
The 27-year-old man was already known to police, and has a “complex background” which the lead investigator is working to better understand with the man’s family, McFadden said.
Resident ‘charged’ toward officer
When police announced their presence outside the bloodied unit door, McFadden said the 27-year-old man came outside onto the “narrow” balcony where he allegedly began to verbally challenge police.
Then he “charged” toward a young female officer, who started to “go backwards” on the balcony, McFadden said.
This is when the young constable discharged her firearm, but the 27-year-old man “continued on after the shots were fired, knocking the officer on the ground,” he said.
The two other police officers grabbed the man and held him down as first aid was provided.
He was given “a green light corridor to hospital” where he remains after undergoing emergency surgery, McFadden said.
When asked why police fired a gun instead of using a Taser, McFadden said: “One of the things that becomes apparent is the volatile nature of the calls for service that police are called to on a daily basis, and how quickly those circumstances can escalate.”
He said that the matter is under investigation but added that he gives his “full support” to the officer who fired the gun, citing both “the level of violence that was described by the member of the community” and “the evidence of blood on the doorway.”
A critical incident team will lead the ongoing investigation, which will be subject of an independent review by the Professional Standards Command and overseen by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC).
The incident was captured by the cameras worn by all three officers who were involved in the incident.
The footage has been viewed by both the lead investigator and LECC, with McFadden set to watch the footage on Friday.
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