Police didn’t link gunfire to shooter
A SERGEANT who kept Ricky Maddison on the phone long enough for him to be found told a court he ran into the communications room when a pursuit began to say the gunman was “dangerous” and wanted for serious crimes.
Sergeant Peter Jenkins told an inquest he had spoken to Maddison for some time shortly before a pursuit began that led to Senior Constable Brett Forte being murdered.
He said Maddison had been calling the station from pay phones to argue with police and the plan was to keep him on the phone should he call.
Police vehicles would then be sent out to search pay phones for the gunman.
The inquest heard Sen Const. Forte answered a call on the afternoon of May 29, 2017 – the same day he was murdered – and spoke to Maddison briefly before transferring the call to Sgt Jenkins.
He said he used a technique of making Maddison angry and then calming him down to keep him on the line.
Maddison eventually hung up but was spotted by a police patrol driving along Mary St in Toowoomba shortly after.
Sgt Jenkins denied he ran into the communications room to convince the pursuit controller – the COMCO – to chase Maddison “no matter what”.
“I wanted him to be aware of all the information he needed so that he could make decisions,” Sgt Jenkins said, saying he wanted only to provide him with “situational awareness”.
Barrister David Funch put to Sgt Jenkins that he told the COMCO Maddison was dangerous.
Mr Funch said: “I suggest that what you said to (the COMCO) when you got to the comms room is ‘he’s dangerous, he’s wanted for torture, he’s wanted for serious, really serious offences. We need to get him’. Do you accept that you may have said that to (the COMCO)?”
Sgt Jenkins responded: “I would accept that I told him that he was wanted for serious offences, torture being one and I recall telling him that it was Ricky Maddison and that the car belonged to his brother. But I can’t recall whether I said the rest of it.”
Mr Funch said: “But you accept it’s possible you may have said to him ‘we need to get him’?”
Sgt Jenkins responded: “No, not really. I said it was possible. I can’t recall saying it. It is possible because he was wanted. He was dangerous.”
The team leader of the squad hunting for paranoid gunman Ricky Maddison told a court he “never made the link” between reports of machine gun fire on the edge of the Lockyer National Park despite the park being a “specific target area” of their search.
Sergeant Dan Curtain gave evidence at the inquest into the murder of Senior Constable Brett Forte and the death of gunman Ricky Maddison in 2017.
He told the court he became aware of an investigation into reports of automatic gunfire in the vicinity of Wallers Rd in the Lockyer Valley on May 22 — a week before Sen Const. Forte was killed.
Three days later, he joined other officers on a patrol through the Lockyer National Park because police thought Maddison might have been living rough in the bush.
“I never made that link,” he said, of the suggestion that Maddison may have been behind the gunfire that had been heard in the area since January.
He said police carried a long arm rifle in the car during the patrol, which he said was not uncommon in Toowoomba.
Sen Const. Forte was killed on May 29, 2017, by known criminal Ricky Maddison, following a low-speed pursuit at Seventeen Mile in the Lockyer Valley.
The inquest heard Maddison’s behaviour had become increasingly erratic in the days leading up to Sen Const. Forte’s murder, with the gunman having spent two months avoiding an arrest warrant over a domestic violence matter.
The inquest heard Maddison had been calling police in Toowoomba from pay phones, telling them “youse (sic) know where I am” and “I left enough trails”.
On the afternoon of May 29, Maddison was spotted in Toowoomba and pursued by several police vehicles down the Warrego Hwy before he veered off the road.
Police followed him along Wallers Rd — a dirt road — where Maddison suddenly got out of his car and opened fire with an assault rifle.
Sen Const. Forte was killed and Maddison held specialist SERT officers at bay for 20 hours before they shot and killed him.