COPS SHOOT EX-BIKIE MATE
Final chat then killed by police
THE night before Liam Scorsese was fatally shot by police he phoned his lawyer in good spirits, keen to alter a court date for a new education course he wanted to do.
Next morning the 31year-old Gold Coaster (right), who police have described as a bikie associate, was killed when a rookie cop opened fire on him at a dramatic emergency call-out.
“He was no saint but they didn’t have to kill him,” trouble-prone Scorsese’s lawyer Ashkan Tai said last night.
THE night before Liam Scorsese was fatally shot by police he phoned his lawyer in good spirits, keen to move a court date for a new course he wanted to do.
Yesterday, the 31-year-old Gold Coaster, who police describe as a bikie associate, was killed when a rookie cop opened fire on him at a dramatic emergency call-out.
Ashkan Tai, the troubleprone Scorsese’s lawyer, said last night he was heartbroken, as were his family.
“He was no saint but they didn’t have to kill him.”
His client – who had come to police attention the past 18 months for a brutal assault of a tourist bus driver, abusing paramedics after a traffic accident and using counterfeit money at the Broadbeach casino – was trying to turn his life around, Mr Tai said.
“I spoke to him last night on the phone, he was starting a new education course. He’d been fantastic since he got out of prison in November. He’d just been training, being positive, working with his father,” he said.
Police say “fearful” occupants of a Brisbane residence,
HE WAS NO SAINT BUT THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO KILL HIM.
LAWYER ASHKAN TAI
who knew Scorsese, called triple 0 to the Wakerley home at 9.50am yesterday, reporting he was armed with a knife and trying to break in.
When two officers arrived, he was “enraged”, armed and threatened the two cops, police say.
Acting Chief Superintendent Mick Niland, who described the two officers as “quite junior”, said they “activated” a taser.
“I understand after utilising the taser, police retreated away from the offender and the offender has followed with a knife threatening police,” he said.
“Police retreated 50 to 60 metres down the road. Police have shot the male, he is deceased. Police were in fear for their lives at the time.”
Police gave CPR to Scorsese before he was rushed to hospital, dying either on the way or on arrival.
Scorsese was still on parole, after release late last year from three months in prison for pleading guilty to the brutal 2016 assault of the bus driver in central Surfers Paradise in broad daylight.
Scorsese and a co-accused hauled the man off his bus after he asked how long they were going to remain illegally parked in a bus zone, a court heard at the time.
Scorsese, who punched the man before dragging him feet first off the bus and bumping his head down the steps, told the court he was “remorseful, indeed ashamed” of his actions during the attack.
A n underworld source said his reputation was “not great” after it: “Silly things like that attack on the bus driver, everyone frowned upon. It was ridiculous.
“That’s not in the code, doing something like that to a member of the public. When the public get involved people aren’t too happy about it at all.” Mr Tai said his client’s Gold Coast family were heartbroken. “The family and everyone near are extremely anxious to know what happened. I’m not saying he was Mary Poppins and got shot unfairly, something has happened. But I don’t understand how police with tasers and batons can’t do all that before shooting.”
In an online tribute, Mr Tai said in professional dealing he was “a gentleman and always respectful ... a life taken too early”.
Acting Chief Supt Niland said it was being investigated by the Ethical Standards Command with oversight from the Crime and Corruption Commission.
“It is a traumatic event for the family of the deceased, our officers are also traumatised. We are doing our best to try and support them.”