Gunman hits his breaking point
An angry Ricky Maddison, Toowoomba’s most wanted man, called police from a phone box demanding to know why tactical crime officers wanted to talk to him
AN HOUR after Senior Constable Brett Forte answered the phone he would be dead, shot by the agitated man on the other end of the line.
Fugitive Ricky Maddison was calling from a phone box in Toowoomba. He was angry.
He had just bought fuel in town, with a handful of coins, a $5 note and a bank card. He wrongly thought authorities had cancelled his pension. He was using drugs and prescription pills.
Maddison asked Sen Const. Forte if he could speak to a senior officer. The phone was transferred to Sergeant Peter Jenkins. It was 1.16pm.
Almost immediately they began arguing.
Maddison, inflamed and swearing profusely, demanded to know why police from the tactical crime squad wanted to speak to him. He blamed them for his misfortunes and his life’s downward spiral.
Officers had been trying to arrest Maddison – Toowoomba’s most wanted man – over allegations of torture and deprivation of liberty and accusations of firing a gun during a domestic violence incident.
“I think that you’ve probably gone about the way you normally do, you get aggro like you are at the moment,” Sgt Jenkins said to Maddison.
“I am firmly of the opinion that you have committed all the offences that people have made allegations against you for doing,” the officer said, asking the fugitive to come and talk to police.
It had been a game of cat and mouse, with Maddison eluding police for weeks.
The squad needed to keep Maddison on the phone as long as they could. They knew he was using public phone boxes to make calls and their strategy was for crews to find him while he was still on the heated phone call.
What police didn’t know was that Maddison wanted to go down fighting. Only a day earlier he showed a close friend an arsenal of up to eight guns in the back of his car, telling him that he was going to be “big news”.
As Maddison continued to argue with Sgt Jenkins he refused to come into the station and demanded to know whether police would reinstate domestic violence charges he’d “fought for two years”.
“I’m not going to discuss your case over the phone with you … why don’t you man up and come in?,” Sgt Jenkins said.
Maddison responded: “You f**king man up and come f**king get me then.”
Sgt Jenkins said he didn’t know where Maddison was.
“Youse know where I am. You know exactly where I am so what’s with the games?” Maddison said.
It was possible Maddison believed police had already found his hide-out – a friend’s property on Wallers Rd – as just three days before the phone call he discovered a camera set up by a different group of officers outside the rural lot to investigate reports of automatic gunfire. The camera was labelled “Gatton police”.
As they continued to argue on the phone, Maddison told Sgt Jenkins he had “nothing left” after spending all of his money fighting previous charges and couldn’t afford a solicitor to go through it again.
“I’m very f**king upset about it,” Maddison said.
“I’ve lost my house, my business, I sold all my f**king vehicles, I’ve borrowed from friends, family, everyone I f**king know. I have f**king nothing.”
Maddison asked how many charges he would face and if police would oppose bail while becoming increasingly agitated. Sgt Jenkins told Maddison he was “a bit emotional and carrying on like a pork chop”.
Maddison claimed he hadn’t seen family or friends in six to 12 months.
“Because I can’t face anybody anymore,” he said.
“I’m a f**king broken man. I used to be a proud f**king businessman. I used to be proud. Now I f**king have trouble finding a reason to get out of bed.”
Sgt Jenkins told Maddison he’d be able to get his version of events recorded and that he’d interview him personally to either clear his name or be “held accountable for the actions you have taken”.
Maddison refused and said police needed to investigate his denials about the allegations.
Seemingly angrier, Maddison now called police “c***s with badges and guns”.
Maddison challenged police to come and see him and again claimed police knew where he was.
“I made it easy enough for ya. I left enough trails,” he said.
When discussing allegations, Sgt Jenkins suggested to Maddison that he “think things only in your way, you don’t ever look at the big picture”.
“I’m delusional am I?” Maddison said.
Sgt Jenkins responded: “I think you probably are a little bit.”
Maddison then said: “Go f**k yourself you c**ksucker. Come get me.”
Minutes later, Maddison was fed up. Police weren’t going to tell him the allegations in a phone call. He hung up the phone at 1.51pm, soon after telling the officer to “put yourself in my shoes”.
After Maddison left the phone box a crew looking for him spotted his dual cab Nissan Navara on nearby Mary St. Their strategy had worked. Now they just needed to get their man.
A pursuit began, lasting more than 20 minutes, with Maddison leading several police cars to Wallers Rd in the Lockyer Valley.
Maddison got out of his car and opened fire with a machine gun at 2.18pm, spraying the closest pursuing police car.
Sen Const. Forte was killed after being shot in the groin and the arm.
After a 20-hour siege Maddison was killed by officers from the Special Emergency Response Team.
Toxicology results from Maddison’s post-mortem detected methamphetamine at a “level potentially in the lethal range”, a finding suggesting he was a regular user. Results also included Diazepam, codeine, anti-inflammatory drugs and antidepressants.