Page 3741 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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Police have discharged a firearm following a disturbance in Wanniassa earlier this morning …
About 5am ACT Policing responded to a report of a disturbance where a man was armed with a knife and a meat cleaver in Riddell Court.
Police were speaking to the man for approximately half an hour while he was still in the house. The man has exited the house armed with the knife and meat cleaver.
Police made numerous requests for the 27-year-old man to drop his weapons and have withdrawn to approximately 300 metres away with the man following and continually approaching them. All the while police were calling on the man to drop the knife and meat cleaver.
The man has then lunged at the police officer who has fired one shot from his service pistol.
There was a follow-up article two days after that initial report titled “Tasers could have prevented shooting: ACT police”:
ACT police have indicated the widespread use of tasers across the Territory may have prevented Sunday’s fatal shooting in the suburb of Wanniassa.
Nathan Doherty … was shot after allegedly lunging at an officer while armed with a knife and meat cleaver.
On this particular occasion, according to the deputy chief police officer:
… I think a taser would have been effective, but every circumstance dictates its own circumstance and there’s a whole range of use of force …
That is but one example. There is another one here: “Without Taser, ‘no option’ but to shoot.” There is the sad case of Mr Crowley, which is well known in this community. Indeed, I believe Mr Crowley has moved motions within the Labor Party to see the use of tasers. Mr Crowley was shot by police in 2001 and suffered very debilitating injuries as a result. It could be the case that, if the police in that circumstance had had tasers, he would not have been shot.
It is clear that tasers have a role. The problem is that at the moment they have only been issued to substantive sergeants. Certainly I welcome that but, as we know, substantive sergeants are not always available when these incidents occur. I have become aware that there are cases where acting sergeants, who are not allowed to taser, are on duty and there is essentially no taser available at short notice if an incident occurs because it does take time for a substantive sergeant, on occasion, to get to the front line where an incident is occurring.
In this debate, I think it is worth referring to what Mr Corbell has said previously. I quote from the Assembly of 2010:
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