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The Cairns & Fraser Coast Shootings: What QPS Says… and What They Don’t · The Slippery Slope

• 0:00
  Hi Jake Fallon and thanks for listening.
• 0:03
  So I want to get into two police stories coming out of
• 0:05
  Queensland. 2 shootings, 1 where a police officer was
• 0:11
  unfortunately injured, rushed to hospital, looks like he's going
• 0:14
  to be fine but undergone surgery for a serious injury.
• 0:18
  And another where a a civilian has been shot after brandishing
• 0:22
  some knives up in Cairns. So interesting stories.
• 0:27
  Very interesting. Not anyway I'll get into it.
• 0:31
  It's it's, it's you can see the way things are written
• 0:35
  differently depending on the outcome.
• 0:38
  But made some great news for police anyway regarding the
• 0:42
  officer who who was injured. Get
• 0:57
  OK. So the first one is the body of
• 0:59
  a man was found after officer shot during armed standoff on
• 1:04
  the Fraser Coast, which is in Queensland, just in case you
• 1:07
  don't know about that. So it was the first year
• 1:09
  Constable police officer on his last rookie shift went to a
• 1:13
  routine welfare cheque only to be met with a hail of bullets in
• 1:16
  a dramatic siege which put him in surgery and ended in the
• 1:20
  gunman's death. The constable was just about to
• 1:22
  finish his stint in Maryborough when he attended the domestic
• 1:25
  violence related call out at a picturesque property in Yingari
• 1:29
  and was walking down the driver with 45 when 45 year old Adam
• 1:34
  O'Shea opened fire with his semi automatic rifle, a well placed
• 1:38
  source told his this publication.
• 1:40
  It can also be revealed a stranger had just arrived at the
• 1:43
  property to buy a chicken when him when he and the armed man's
• 1:48
  wife heard gunfire and hid in the coop.
• 1:52
  It's a strange part of the story, yeah.
• 1:54
  Meanwhile, the injured officer was dragged 100 metres to safety
• 1:57
  by his hero colleagues, one of whom is understood to have
• 2:02
  driven the ambulance carrying his injured mate to Maryborough
• 2:06
  Maryborough Hospital while paramedics treated him in the
• 2:09
  back. Two women and two children
• 2:11
  managed to escape during the hours long standoff and Mr
• 2:15
  O'Shea was later found dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound,
• 2:20
  police confirmed. Eleven officers attended a
• 2:22
  domestic violence matter at a property on Horizon Court, a
• 2:25
  Yangari near Mirabarra about 5:45 PM on Friday.
• 2:29
  So that would be the 24th of July.
• 2:32
  Officers had attempted to engage with O'Shea before the 1st year
• 2:36
  officer sustained A gunshot wound to the leg.
• 2:40
  Addressing the immediate the media on Saturday morning,
• 2:42
  Acting Superintendent Brad Inskip said multiple rounds were
• 2:47
  fired at responding officers with a bullet causing some
• 2:50
  serious injuries to the leg of 1 male officer.
• 2:54
  It was very shortly after the officers arrived that the
• 2:57
  offender began shooting at police.
• 2:59
  Acting Superintendent said the officers were the officers was
• 3:02
  dragged 100 metres to safety by his colleagues before he's taken
• 3:07
  to Mirabar Hospital. Later flown to the Royal
• 3:09
  Brisbane and Women's Hospital in a stable condition.
• 3:12
  The 36 year old was undergoing surgery at RBWH on Saturday.
• 3:17
  He is receiving expert medical care and the QBs has taken
• 3:20
  responsibility for notifying his immediate family, union
• 3:23
  spokesman said. So inspector Acting inspector
• 3:29
  has said that O'Shea was not a licenced weapons holder but was
• 3:32
  known to police. Specialised police attended
• 3:35
  scene shortly after 9:20 PM and found O'Shea dead during a
• 3:40
  search of the property, so the acting inspector told media
• 3:45
  there were two women and two children in the home who self
• 3:47
  extracted during the night. The gunman had suffered a self
• 3:51
  inflicted gunshot wound. QLD Police Union president Shane
• 3:59
  Pryor confirmed the shot officer was due to be heading to another
• 4:02
  station in the following days. Yesterday's one was one year to
• 4:06
  the day that he graduated from the police Academy.
• 4:09
  Price said it sent a chill down his spine receiving the phone
• 4:12
  call, hearing the extent of the injuries and what his mates had
• 4:15
  done had to do to get him out of harm's way.
• 4:18
  When police arrived at the address, they immediately were
• 4:20
  set upon by volley of shots from a rifle.
• 4:23
  In those first rounds of firing, our officer was shot.
• 4:27
  Price said that the officer attempted to apply first aid to
• 4:29
  himself but due to the sheer blood loss, he had to call for a
• 4:33
  colleague. The colleague put aside his
• 4:36
  safety, immediately left his cover to aid his partner.
• 4:39
  He helped him apply a tourniquet tourniquet to that leg, saving
• 4:44
  his leg while he was also being shot at Public Safety
• 4:50
  Preservation Act. The PSPA declaration that was
• 4:53
  made at 5:45 was eventually revoked at 11:36.
• 4:59
  Queenslanders should be extraordinarily proud of the
• 5:01
  officers here in Queensland, but in particular our officers here
• 5:05
  in Maryborough and what they did last night is what Mr Pryor
• 5:07
  said. Just take note of the extent of
• 5:10
  this story. So the matter will be
• 5:13
  investigated by ethical stands command with oversight by the
• 5:18
  Crime and Corruption Commission and the Queensland Police Union.
• 5:22
  In a statement, said it joined with the family of the injured
• 5:25
  officer in thanking the police, family and broader community for
• 5:28
  the messages of support. So, yeah, our thoughts and our
• 5:32
  prayers go out to this officer. First year, Connie, in getting
• 5:37
  shot. That's quite remarkable.
• 5:40
  So, yeah, really do hope and pray that he will make it
• 5:45
  through unscathed in the end with just nothing more than a
• 5:49
  scar, a small scar and some, you know, memories that hopefully
• 5:54
  you'll be able to get rid of bad memories.
• 5:56
  But look at the length of this story, this is what happened.
• 6:00
  So let's go over to another story that happened.
• 6:02
  I believe this is yesterday in Cairns. 2 people shot by police
• 6:06
  during altercation in Cairns. So two people have been shot by
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  police in far North QLD. Authorities were called to an
• 6:13
  address in Mount Sheridan, a suburb of Cairns, just after
• 6:16
  5:00 PM after reports of a man armed with knives.
• 6:19
  Police say they attempted to engage with the man before he
• 6:22
  was shot by officers. A woman was also shot by during
• 6:25
  the altercation. The Queensland Ambulance Service
• 6:29
  says they have both been taken to the Cairns Hospital.
• 6:32
  They're both in a stable condition.
• 6:34
  So I've been looking around because I didn't I saw this
• 6:36
  yesterday and I was there wasn't a lot of information so I
• 6:39
  thought I'll wait and see. There'll be more information
• 6:41
  coming out tomorrow surely. So I've got that story.
• 6:44
  Nothing much there. Another another article.
• 6:47
  Yep police involved in shooting incident in Cairns, Far North
• 6:53
  Queensland law enforcement officials have shot 2
• 6:55
  individuals. The incident occurred Mount
• 6:57
  Sheridan following alerts about a man wielding knives.
• 7:04
  According to police reports, efforts were made to communicate
• 7:07
  with a man before he's ultimately shot by the officers.
• 7:10
  A woman was also injured during the confrontation and
• 7:13
  subsequently shot. The Queensland Ambulance
• 7:16
  Services confirmed that both the individuals were transported to
• 7:19
  Cairns Hospital, where they are currently listed in stable
• 7:22
  condition. Very, very minimal information
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  there coming from as opposed to now.
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  First off, before I say anything else, OK, this is not, I'm not
• 7:38
  having a having a go at the officers involved in the
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  shooting at all. Nothing, nothing to do with
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  them. Definitely.
• 7:45
  OK, The chap that was shot and these, all these officers who
• 7:48
  were very brave, very brave. You're getting shot at.
• 7:51
  It is a hard thing to do to put your head up and say, OK, I'm
• 7:54
  going to go and help a mate and I'm also going to go and drag
• 7:57
  him to safety what, approximately 100 metres away.
• 8:00
  That is some heroic and heroic efforts and I'm sure they'll get
• 8:05
  a medal. But you know, they deserve a lot
• 8:06
  more than just a medal. But look, OK.
• 8:10
  And then you got officers going to a another job up in Cairns.
• 8:15
  Someone's wielding knives. Again, very dangerous situation.
• 8:18
  Your life is in danger. However, listen, all I want to
• 8:24
  say, I do not want to take away at all from the obvious bravery
• 8:29
  from obviously the the officers down in Mirabar and the officer,
• 8:33
  the young officer that was shot. Also the officers up in Cairns
• 8:36
  who are confronting someone who's getting around threatening
• 8:39
  behaviour with knives, that's a very dangerous situation.
• 8:44
  However, the Queensland Police Service needs to be just as open
• 8:48
  and transparent with all their stories.
• 8:51
  You've got the story down in Maryborough where everything
• 8:54
  shines a really great light on the Queensland Police Service,
• 8:57
  the way they reacted to the situation.
• 9:00
  You've got a lot of sympathy because a lot of sympathy and
• 9:05
  empathy because the police officer was injured, was shot.
• 9:09
  And yet you have all these officers stand up bravely and,
• 9:13
  you know, help support his injure injury, drag him, put
• 9:18
  their own lives at risk and drag him to safety, take him to the
• 9:22
  hospital, drive the ambulance while the ambulance officers are
• 9:26
  seen to his wounds. That's a great PR story.
• 9:29
  And there's a lot of openness and a lot of transparency.
• 9:32
  You give all out all this information, but when it comes
• 9:35
  to a member of the public being shot by police, which is
• 9:39
  probably just as brave a situation, these officers are
• 9:42
  confronting someone with a knife.
• 9:44
  But the Queensland Police Service don't treat that story
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  with the same openness, the same transparency.
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  They don't give out the same amount of information when it
• 9:53
  comes to these stories. To me, I, I believe this is part
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  of the reason why police, why the public don't trust police,
• 10:03
  because they pick and choose when they want to be open and
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  transparent. They say it in their little
• 10:07
  spiel, you know, in our commitment to being open and
• 10:10
  transparent and all that rubbish they give out.
• 10:12
  But then you know when a police officer is in trouble, when a
• 10:16
  police officer gets charged with something, when a police officer
• 10:18
  has done something, you know, and they have to be and they
• 10:25
  have to be disciplined for it, then QPS isn't open, isn't
• 10:29
  transparent, doesn't give out all the information, doesn't
• 10:32
  give out all the details, gives very minimal details.
• 10:36
  They need to be consistent in the details.
• 10:39
  And you would find that a lot more of the public would have
• 10:43
  greater trust for you. Don't just pick and choose.
• 10:46
  You've got a great story in here in Maryborough which is good for
• 10:49
  PR. OK, what about the one in
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  Cairns? Why can't you give out more
• 10:53
  information and be more transparent about what happened
• 10:56
  in Cairns? Surely there's more to say then.
• 10:59
  Yeah, he had a couple of noise officers attended and some
• 11:03
  people got shot. Got nothing more to say.
• 11:06
  It's just a big contrast. When it suits, when it looks
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  good for you, then QPS, they'll give you all the information in
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  the world. Anyway, this is just my opinion,
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  let me know what you think. I think QPS would be far better
• 11:18
  off if they were just open, transparent, gave it a lot more
• 11:24
  information, a lot more details, and the public could see that
• 11:28
  the that they didn't shy away from the truth.
• 11:31
  This is I think is a big issue not just with police, but with
• 11:35
  governments in general here in Australia.
• 11:38
  They always like to shy away from the truth.
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  They're always behaving like they're hiding something.
• 11:43
  This is all just my opinion. Thanks very much for listening.