NOT AGAIN
Cop shot dead on Leeding anniversary
SIX years to the day since Detective Senior Constable Damian Leeding was fatally shot when responding to a triple-0 call in Pacific Pines, the Queensland Police Service was last night mourning another officer brutally cut down in the line of duty.
Brett Forte was shot and killed in the Lockyer Valley as he tried to intercept a suspect vehicle.
Like his Gold Coast counterpart, Senior Constable Forte was a family man, who leaves behind a wife and two young children.
THE gunman who is suspected of killing policeman and father-of-two Brett Forte is a career criminal who was wanted by police when he allegedly opened fire on the officer with an automatic weapon.
The Toowoomba Tactical Crime Squad officer died yesterday afternoon after trying to pull over Rick Maddison, who got out of his vehicle and opened fire.
The shooting sparked a siege that lasted hours, with Maddison apparently heard laughing as he fired at the police helicopter from inside a shipping container.
It is understood Senior Constable Forte was shot when he tried to intercept Maddison’s car on Wallers Rd at Seventeen Mile north of Gatton in the Lockyer Valley shortly after 2pm.
Maddison is believed to have opened fire on the officer and his partner. They tried to reverse the police vehicle but it crashed and rolled off the road.
The gunman was believed to have continued to shoot at Sen-Constable Forte after the crash, before fleeing into bushland.
Police set up a large cordon, told residents to stay indoors, and sent the Special Emergency Response Team to the scene.
SERT officers arrived in an armoured vehicle as Maddison, who was believed to have holed up in the shipping container, continued to fire at the circling Polair helicopter.
Officers told residents stranded inside the cordon that Maddison had been seen by the police helicopter running onto acreage.
“He’s on a farm next to a dam, police told us,” resident Peter Hills said. “They’ve got him surrounded and it’s going to be a long night.”
Resident Lisa Hayden watched as Sen-Constable Forte’s colleagues tried to resuscitate him.
“I saw a paddy wagon and
they pulled a man out of the back seat and started to give him CPR in the drain,” she said.
Mrs Hayden, who was in lockdown at her home last night, said she heard three gunshots just after 2.30pm. “I went outside to suss out what was going on. There were definitely gunshots, I think three.”
Sen-Constable Forte was killed on the anniversary of the day Gold Coast detective Damian Leeding was shot in 2011. Former deputy commissioner Ross Barnett was also shot and injured after trying to pull over an armed offender in Toowoomba on the same day in 1991.
Sen-Constable Forte was a hard-working, well-respected officer of 15 years. Police Union president Ian Leavers said he was fatally shot “simply trying to apprehend a wanted person”.
“He was a family man, well respected by all,” he said.
“I’ve spoken with some family, his colleagues, who are all in shock. But they will be doing all they can to assist the investigation to ensure that the right thing can be done.”
Senior-Constable Forte’s wife is also a police officer at Toowoomba.