REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday, May 4, 1989

SURFERS Paradise was the scene of the arrest of Australia’s most wanted man.

John Albert Edward Porter, 27, was caught after having shoot two Sydney police officers just days earlier.

But Porter’s last hours of freedom were not quiet after he took a man and woman hostage in the Thornton Tower apartment building.

The woman was eventually freed and tipped off the police who swooped on Porter, who was found carrying a knife and a .32 calibre automatic pistol.

Porter threatened the man and demanded to be taken to Brisbane but police followed the pair, who were travelling in a Ford Fairlane. The chase ended when 10 police vehicles and 15 armed detectives surrounded the getaway car.

Porter surrendered without a fight, according to Gold Coast CIB Detective Inspector Ken Martin who said the wanted man was arrested with a pistol in his trousers.

Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sydney detectives all interrogated the criminal, who was alleged to have shot police constables Jason Donnelly, 19, and Allan McQueen, 26.

During the manhunt for Porter, an unarmed man, David Gundy, 32, was shot dead during a police raid on a property at Marrickville in innerwest Sydney.

It was thought that Gundy had been harbouring the man, who had been released from Long Bay Jail after serving six years for a $50,000 armed robbery in 1983.

Broadbeach detective Senior Constable Jeff Kelly was the arresting officer and said Porter was “relieved” that the nine-day chase was over.