 All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Are we good to go? All right. One, two, three. One, two, three. All right. Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for coming. We just wanted to provide some further information to you of the circumstances surrounding the shooting of a 50-year-old man at about 235 this morning at a unit complex at Denison Street at Kapalabar. The police were called to that address as a result of a call about a disturbance. That call came from other occupants of the unit block. Two female officers from Kapalabar station attended the call. They spoke to the suspect who retreated to his unit. He shortly thereafter re-emerged from the unit armed with a number of long knives. Initially those knives were pointed towards himself in some sort of a self-harming stance and he then changed the direction of those knives towards the police officers and began to rapidly advance on those officers. The officers were forced into a tactical withdrawal. Whilst they were withdrawing in the courtyard of the unit complex, they repeatedly called on the man to drop the weapons. When the man advanced to within two metres of the police, one of the officers fired a single shot which hit the offender in the groin. The suspect is under police guard in hospital and his injuries are not considered life-threatening. Use of potentially lethal use of force by police is a very serious matter and is being independently investigated by the ethical standards command. Those investigations have included interviews with a number of independent witnesses who corroborate the circumstances as I have outlined them to you here. These two officers acted in response to an imminent threat of death or serious injury, although investigations are ongoing we are satisfied that they acted professionally in accordance with their training and as authorised by law. I'm happy to take any questions. Sure, he was actually shot in the groin but the bullet then travelled down his leg and exited at his knee. So his injuries are not life-threatening. Yes, he's under police guard and will be interviewed about all of the circumstances when he's well enough. It was just a general disturbance in his unit block. Police had actually been called to the same unit block on a couple of occasions previously in relation to disturbances earlier in the night. They hadn't been able to speak to anyone on those previous occasions but on this occasion they spoke to the suspect outside his unit. Well, the circumstances around the actual disturbance are subject to ongoing investigation. Yep, both of the officers had a taser but as they are trained to do in a situation where death or serious injury is imminent our officers are trained that one officer will provide a lethal use of force option while the other officer will provide a non-lethal option, i.e. the taser. On this occasion the man's advance on the police was so quick that he got inside a distance when the use of a taser could be safe and effective for police and they had no option other than to use a firearm. We're told he had three knives in each hand and the knives were about 30 centimetres in length so he presented a very significant threat to those officers. Absolutely, if they hadn't taken the action that they were forced to take no doubt that one of those officers would have been stabbed or killed. We train our officers that a dangerous distance from someone who has an each weapon is inside of a seven metre perimeter. This individual got to within two metres so I think these officers showed commendable restraint in not firing until he was almost upon them. Well the officers are obviously subject of the investigation process mythical standards command that's quite demanding they are getting all the support from human services officer and from senior officers in the region as you would appreciate a life and death situation like this and having to shoot somebody is a very traumatic experience no police officer wants to do that but it was forced upon them so obviously it's traumatic and there'll be probably some after effects for both officers. Yes they were both from Kapalabar station the officer who fired the shot has about three years service and the other officer has just over 12 months service not at this time, no. Thank you partner. We train our people that if they are in a situation where death or serious injury is imminent they have a range of use of force options open to them including a firearm, taser, OC spray whatever if it gets to the stage where they are in fear of their life we train them to use lethal force as authorised by law and in accordance with their training that's what was done on this occasion. All I can tell you is it was repeatedly and that's verified by a number of independent witnesses who witnessed the event they fully support the police version of what occurred From the police? There was certainly no delay in any triple O call as I said there were calls to that unit complex earlier in the night which police did attend to but were unable to find the cause of the disturbance when they returned on this occasion it was a routine response Code 3 obviously after the shooting there was an immediate additional police response but there was no delay, there was no triple O call which went unanswered. This will be in response to the ongoing disturbance calls of the unit as you can appreciate on a busy Friday night resources are stretched and priority is given to various jobs as they come in this job was given a priority code 3 which is not urgent and was responded to in that fashion. They did attend the unit block early in the evening in relation to a disturbance call but they couldn't find anyone who was causing a disturbance so they left and went about other duties Yes he was Yes certainly The officer was attending to an unrelated inquiry in a cul-de-sac he saw a vehicle there that he wanted to speak to the motion for that vehicle to stop the driver of that vehicle drove at the officer hit that officer and knocked him to the ground and drove away from the scene that officer has been treated at hospital and released for concussion and bruising and a 17 year old male person is presently being interviewed by police Why did he want to? I don't have that information Yes I spoke with his wife earlier he's suffering some headaches and concussion but we expect that he'll make a full recovery in due course Labrador I don't have that information I'm sorry Yes there was a stabbing of a lady at a house at Palm Island she was deceased when police arrived and a male person from that house is being interviewed by police I can't go into that at this point We don't Given that he wasn't located until several hours later any breath testing wouldn't be definitive but there's no indication that alcohol or drugs would necessarily involve but he's presently being interviewed so I really can't assist you any further with the circumstances at the moment Where was the officer struck? He was knocked over He was hit in the hip as I understand and then knocked to the footpath Yes there were there was a young officer who was struck in the face by an offender and another officer was injured going to his aid again the offender in that case has been interviewed and arrested Busy night