Officer stabbed

Police shoot accused dead

AN alleged sex offender has been shot dead after stabbing a policeman in a pub during an investigation in Sydney’s beachside suburb of Maroubra.

The senior officer was stabbed in the chest after police went into the beer garden of the busy Maroubra Junction Hotel to arrest Nick Newman.

Newman, 33, was shot by two other officers and died at the scene. The detective sergeant was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital and was last night in a critical condition.

Police yesterday said they were searching for Newman who was known to frequent the Sydney CBD, Redfern and the Nepean area.

He was scheduled to appear at Penrith Local Court on January 24. A witness who was walking to the gym across the road from the Maroubra Junction Hotel yesterday heard police cars rush past with their sirens. Pedro Casemiro said he walked onto Maroubra Rd in time to see scores of police officers running into the pub.

“Ten seconds later a lot of policemen started running around the hotel,” he said. “The guys at the hotel said someone is shot, someone is dead.”

Mr Casemiro took video of police leading one man out of the pub in handcuffs. Meanwhile, a nearby business owner said one of his customers heard the gunshots. “One of my customers said someone was shot dead,” he said.

Businesses were closed in the immediate area, with parts of Maroubra Rd taped off, while dozens of officers remain in place outside the pub. “I was just working ... all of a sudden I hear about four or five gunshots next door,” a witness told 2GB.

“I look up, I go outside, there’s all these sirens there and I see a guy come out in handcuffs and another guy in a stretcher.”