Police shoot man in Far North Queensland after he allegedly stole police car
In short: Police have shot a man in Cairns after one of their vehicles was allegedly stolen.
The man has been taken to hospital for treatment.
What’s next? Police Ethical Standards Command will investigate the incident.
Police in Cairns have shot a 21-year-old man after he allegedly stole a police vehicle.
Detective Acting Superintendent Mick Searle said officers were called to reports of an incident “involving a distressed female” at a house in the suburb of Westcourt about 5:30am Wednesday.
Acting Superintendent Searle said police were approached by a man who allegedly threatened them with “a number of weapons”.
“It will be alleged that that male person has stolen a marked police vehicle, which was then pursued to an address here in Sondrio Street at Woree,” he said.
“Police intercepted that vehicle, and further engagement occurred between a male person and police, which resulted in that person being shot by a police officer.”
The 21-year-old man was taken to the Cairns Base Hospital where he was being assessed.
A spokesman from Cairns Hospital said the man was in a stable condition.
Acting Superintendent Searle said the man was alive and conscious.
He said police were speaking to witnesses and were appealing for anyone else who had information to come forward.
“There is always a concern for public safety which is why we try and act as quickly and effectively as we possible can,” he said.
Chaotic scene
Bungalow resident Chelsea Stevens said the incident was like a scene from a movie.
“The man was surrounded by cop cars, he had weapons, the police didn’t really want approach him — they physically didn’t want to come within a distance of him,” she said.
Ms Stevens said she called police about 5.30am after she and her roommate were woken to the sound of a woman screaming.
By the time she was at her workplace around the corner, later in the morning, her partner called to say the man was on the move.
“Two seconds later, I slammed the store door down and we had all this metal being hit against there, so we were really, really lucky to avoid any harm,” she said.
“There was mostly screaming but we found a lot of tools, big metal tools, everywhere.”
