 Okay. Okay, thank you. Well, thank you for coming. As you're aware, last night on the Gold Coast, Pacific Pines Tavern, there was a robbery in progress. Local police from Coomera have responded to that armed robbery. And unfortunately during the course of that event, Detective Damien Leading has been critically wounded. Our hearts and minds and thoughts, of course, are now with his wife and family and indeed with Damien, who is in the Gold Coast Hospital. We hope and pray that he recovers from these awful injuries. I might allow the Commissioner to provide the detail of the events and whatever other information is available and then we'll be happy to answer any questions. Thanks, Minister, as the Minister has indicated, the police vehicle concerned that was the first response vehicle contained two detectives from the Coomera CIB. They were working that night on patrol duties. They arrived at the Pacific Pines Tavern at approximately a quarter to eleven last night. The armed robbery, it will be alleged, was still in progress at that time. Soon after that, Senior Constable Damien Leading was shot in the head with a shotgun. He is currently in a critical condition in intensive care at the Gold Coast Hospital at Southport. His family are with him and his wife is by his side at the moment. We hold grave concerns, obviously, for his overall condition. In terms of the investigation, soon after Senior Constable Leading was shot, a district duty officer or senior sergeant was at the scene and he provided first aid and CPR assistance to Senior Constable Leading. The next unit that arrived soon after a game was a dog squad unit. The dog squad officer and the dog successfully tracked two people who were in the vicinity and they were detained and since then a third person has been detained. Whilst we have a completely open view, of course, in relation to the investigation, we believe that those three people primarily will be able to assist in this investigation. That doesn't exclude the possibility, of course, that others may be involved in the periphery. It's still a long way to go with the investigation. I'm sure you'll understand that in terms of that aspect, there may well be things that we're not in a position to disclose at the moment or may simply not know at this point in time, but certainly prepared to take any questions you have. Well, that's part of the current investigation. Hopefully we'll be in a position to advise more fulsomely about that later. Not to any great extent. Only to this extent that we'll be alleging that this offence occurred around closing time and we'll be alleging that hostages were involved and we'll be alleging that the hostages involved both staff and patrons. I always am. The worst case scenario for us, of course, is police are the first responders to matters such as their armed robberies, particularly in a situation where there may be hostages and firearms are involved. As I've mentioned earlier today and it's correct, when the police are aware and get called on armed robbery in progress, they have to attend. That's their role, that's their responsibility. In the immediacy of that situation, they have no idea what they're about to confront, but they have to go and this is what's happened last night. The worst case scenario from our point of view. Well, I think without question and if we could just separate ourselves out from what happened last night because we don't know the motive for this matter last night, but without question one of the contributing factors are drugs. People desperately need money to purchase drugs and that links into the advice we always give to people who are the victims and most of the premises are, of course, what are called soft targets, such as 7-11 type stores or 24-hour surveys where there is only one person working. So advice always is to those employees not to be a hero, give them the money and don't try and fight or argue with them. And one of the reasons we say that is because quite often the people who do this are completely very irrational. It's far too early to know. Commissioner, what was the scenario? Why did the police get there so quickly? Were they in the area at the time? Look, I'm not certain of that yet, but I think it's a reasonable assumption to say that they were in the area on patrol and were there indeed very, very quickly. Is it time for an armed robbery squad on the Gold Coast? We have an obviously an armed robbery squad here at State Crime Operations Command in Brisbane and the issue as to whether there should be an armed robbery squad on the Gold Coast is still on the table, no decision has been made about that yet and that's under ongoing consideration. To date we have not felt that it was necessary. What I'm saying though is that it's still on the table and no final decision has been made in that regard. Is this incident tragic though it is? Every incident would obviously, in the totality of armed robbery offences in any given period is something that we keep under consideration and changing trends and developments are something that we keep under consideration. So what I'm saying is that the possibility of an armed robbery squad for the Gold Coast is not off the table, but to date we believe that the armed robbery squad based here in Brisbane at State Crime Operations Command together with the work of local detectives throughout the state has been an adequate response. Is the law on how to control on the Gold Coast? No it's not. Given the number of armed robberies that have happened down there in the light of this incident in Barcelona? Yeah, this is a tragedy that armed robberies regrettably are not confined to the Gold Coast. They occur throughout Queensland and severe violence of the type that we've seen last night to a police officer equally is not confined to the Gold Coast. We don't know. We don't know at this point and I'm not able to tell you that's part of the investigation. Is the level of organisation displayed by these people last night suggesting that this is something more than just people who committed to drugs? What I have said this morning is that this in my view is at the higher end of the scale in terms of an armed robbery and clearly we're a police officer who's shot and is a critical life-threatened state that I think would demonstrate and most people would not argue that that is so. I'm sorry? I'm not certain. My understanding is that he was shot outside. I'm not saying in the carpark my understanding is that he was shot outside the building. We don't know. Always one firearm used in a crime is one firearm too many. Post Port Arthur the prevalence of firearms in violent crime declined significantly but it does seem as though it's increasing again and that is something that we need to be very alert to, very conscious of and to do all that we can in terms of prevention. Most of the firearms that are used in illegal crime are not registered firearms. They don't belong to people who own them lawfully and have a licence for them. Most of them are obtained through the illegal gun trade. Is it possible with the laws the way they are or do you think they should be registered? No, no, I think the laws are okay and ultimately laws are a matter for the government but I think the laws are okay. Again, we do a lot of work in terms of illegal firearms but clearly when, if the use of firearms in armed robberies continues and obviously that's something we need to monitor very closely and it may be that we need to look at options in terms of additional things that we're doing beyond what we're doing now. Well, I think as the Commissioner said all laws are under scrutiny all of the time Queensland along with all other states and territories have very stringent regulation of weapons. As the Commissioner has indicated most of these types of crimes are committed by people who are not registered owners of weapons so whereas we need to get to the bottom of this particular offence weapons legislation is always under review I've currently recently introduced some proposed changes or some changes into the Parliament and there'll be further consideration of other changes in the coming months. I think this is just one additional element that will be considered in any review. All legislation needs to be scrutinised and as I've indicated there are some basic national principles and agreements in terms of weapons legislation. Queensland complies with all of those requirements. It's very stringent but again in many instances we're not dealing with people who are legitimate owners or users of weapons. They're illegally obtained and obviously used for criminal intent and not for proper purpose. It's very hard to regulate that other than the laws which we have in place which other penalties for that misuse. That's part of the investigation. We can't rule that out at this stage I don't know. The office is down to go. Well obviously for the officers in the CIB at Coomera that's a traumatic thing to have happen to have a colleague who's been shot and who's in a critical situation in life and injury and intensive care but the Assistant Commissioner myself and other senior police have met with and talked with his colleagues today. One of his colleagues was with him as the first responder. She also in my view acted with bravery and courage but we will do all we can to support those officers. Police know that in the nature of the work they do that there is ever present the ever present threat and risk of danger you can't provide for the safety and security of people and not put your own safety and security at risk. So they're aware of that risk but nonetheless when something like this happens it is extremely traumatic for the people involved. Was the female officer interested in any way? No she wasn't. Did you know all the three men that try all the three people and actually the women? No they're not. But I understand that two are males and one is female. Not that I'm aware of, no. Do you have any answers? No I don't. She works on the goal case. We're not at this stage disclosing the station that she works at and I don't think she is interested in doing anything on Robbery Day. Well this is an issue which I've been questioned about many times and I hold at the same position that ultimately the decision about whether and arm robbery squad is required on the gold case to Brisbane or in North Queensland is entirely a matter for the police commissioner. It's not the responsibility or indeed the role of a minister or a government to dictate This is a matter that police need to be able to determine themselves. They provided the resources by government. They are the ones that got the responsibility for enforcing the law. And therefore how those resources are allocated, what specialist squads are established and where they're positioned. Case of matter is an operational decision of the Police Commissioner and his senior executive. Just in terms of Detective Leedon, can you tell us when he graduated from the Academy and where he worked with Paul Coomer and how long? He has eight years service. So he would have graduated in 93, I imagine. Yeah, I'm sorry, 2003 of course, forgive my maths. He graduated in 2003. He's worked, his entire career has been in the South East region. He served as paralysed, Gold Coast CIB. And he went to Coomer as CIB when we created Coomer as a district about 18 months ago. He was one of the founding detectives there. Can you tell how old he is? 34. He's not straight? She's a senior constable as well. I was born in January. My understanding is that he's 34. But as you would appreciate the fine detail of these things. Sometimes, you know, we don't have to laugh at it, yeah. Is there a problem with apprehension today? No, I'm not able to disclose that. Can you tell me, would he turn in apprehension first and then be more laughed at or confused? Yeah, I think that would be okay. In the vicinity of the tavern, a woman and a male person were located by a dog squad officer. Again, that's part of the ongoing investigation. Now again, I'm not in a position to disclose that. That was some time later, the third person was located. What I have seen, which I'm happy to repeat, is that we'll be alleging that this occurred around closing time. We'll be alleging that it involved hostages and we'll be alleging that those hostages were a mix of staff and patrons. That's a degree of detail that is not appropriate for me to go into. And I'm sure you would understand that I'm not one of the investigating team of detectives in this. And the investigation is ongoing, it's extensive. We're putting all the resources that are needed into it. And all of these details will emerge, obviously, in the form of time. Do you say that many times? No. Well, sorry, no, I haven't got that information. It was some time, obviously, some time this morning. And, sorry, did you say, did either of the responding officers discharge their weapons? No, what I said was that, and the question that was asked was, was there an exchange of fire? And what I said was that we don't know. And that is part of the investigation. And that is between senior constable leading. That's how I took the question, between senior constable leading and the person responsible for shooting him. And my answer to that question is that we don't know at this point in time that it's possible. We don't know. And it's part of the investigation. Do you know if the female officer discharged their weapons? No, I don't. I'm not aware of whether she did or not. I don't believe that she did. And in terms of the investigation, will outside officers come in to investigate aspects of the shooting while the fever officers investigate the armed robbery? How it works is that, and not that the officers from Damien's workplace could not investigate this, but in fairness to them, we don't think that that's appropriate. So investigators from outside of the cameras, CID, will conduct the investigation. I'm sorry, I didn't hear your question. Well, we may be able to. Yes, I just don't have that with me at the moment. And, but we may be able to come back to you on that. Okay. Again, that's part of the investigation. Again, that's part of the investigation. Again, that's part of the investigation. And that's something as well. I simply don't know the specific detail of it. No, I don't. I don't think that he was very far from the building. Again, that's part of the investigation. Well, thank you for your time. We will undertake, of course, to keep you informed as we are able to as how this matter unfolds.