SAD DAD’S COP SPRAY
Family mourns loving son with a ‘big heart’, rap sheet tells a different story
THE father of the man fatally shot by police at the weekend has asked why officers did not use pepper spray or batons to detain his son.
Police said the “officers were in fear for their lives” when confronted by an “enraged” Liam Scorsese, but Peter Maloney said they did not have to bring his boy “down like an animal”.
LIAM Scorsese was no saint.
His court rap sheet, which includes the brutal daylight assault of a tourist bus driver, attests to that.
But the heartbroken father of Scorsese – fatally shot by police when they encountered him “enraged” and armed with a knife on Sunday – is speaking out about another side to his son.
The 31-year-old was not the “rabid animal” he has been portrayed as, dad Peter Maloney says.
In a raw and heartfelt letter, Mr Maloney doesn’t gloss over his son’s many flaws. But he also details his potential for kindness, big heart, and questions whether more could have been done for his son’s mental health issues and if shooting him was necessary.
“My son Liam was troubled. He was, at times, mentally unhinged, with extreme highs and diabolical lows,” Mr Maloney writes. “He was no saint but he was not heartless.”
For loved ones of his son, who adopted the surname of Hollywood director Martin Scorsese because it sounded cool, he “had the personality of a movie star”.
He is not the only one revealing another side to a man described by police as a “bikie associate” with former links to the notorious Comanchero gang.
A Gold Coast nurse has posted to a tribute page, saying: “I just wanted to let Liam’s family know as Liam’s nurse on previous visits to hospital I could not speak more highly of him.
“Always well mannered and a true gentleman, he would even say hi if he saw me at Robina Town Centre.”
Similarly, his lawyer Ashkan Tai has said in “professional dealings” with Scorsese he was “always respectful”.
Scorsese seems to have first come to prominence for the wrong reasons in August, 2016, when he pleaded guilty to testosterone possession.
Things went from bad to worse. That same month he assaulted a tourist bus driver in central Surfers Paradise. It came after the driver dared ask how long Scorsese and his mate, an alleged Comanchero bikie, planned to stay illegally parked in a bus zone.
Details in court show Scorsese punched the driver before dragging him feet first off the bus and bumping his head on the steps on the way down.
The attack, caught on CCTV, was at 5pm – three hours later Scorsese was seriously assaulted himself, bolting with a broken jaw from the Aria tower in Broadbeach after a shady apartment meeting with others in which a gun was discharged.
He refused to lay a complaint about his injury.
A month later he was allegedly found with counterfeit $50 notes, gambling at the casino in Broadbeach.
In December, 2016, following a traffic accident in Broadbeach Waters, TV footage showed him leaping from a stretcher and lashing out at paramedics, as a friend pleaded for him to calm down. Charges were later dropped.
On Sunday morning, police were called to a house in Wakerly, Brisbane, by the occupants, who police say were “fearful” of an enraged, knifewielding Scorsese outside.
A Taser was activated and two officers had backed up 50 to 60 metres before Scorsese was shot twice by a junior cop, including once in the neck. He died soon after. Chief Superintendent Mick Niland has said the “officers were in fear for their lives”.
The address at which he was shot is believed to be where his girlfriend lived at times.
Scorsese’s Sydney-based mother Maree Maloney has reached out on Facebook to his girlfriend, saying she loves him “so much and my heart has broken like your heart”.
“We can help to console and heal each other,” Ms Maloney writes.
An Ethical Standards Command investigation into the fatal shooting is underway.