The knife-wielding man who attacked two junior police officers and was shot dead at Wickham last week had a history of crime that included a home invasion where he threatened two teenagers with an axe, court documents show.
The officers found 38-year-old Toronto man Warren Matthew Simon at a Bishopsgate Street property about 8am on Good Friday, where he stabbed a male constable near the armpit and a female constable was left with lacerations to her hand before police opened fire.
Simon's name has appeared on court lists in the Hunter numerous times over at least the past seven years - largely for robberies in the Lake Macquarie area.
The constables who confronted Simon last Friday were investigating a theft from earlier that night.
According to Newcastle District Court records, Simon was handed a two-and-a-half year maximum prison term beginning in July 2020 for threatening attendants and - unsuccessfully - demanding cash from a newsagency, take-away eatery, and bottle shop at Toronto in April 2020. He used a chair to threaten one of the workers.
It came after he received a maximum four-and-a-half year jail sentence in mid-2017 for a home invasion at Toronto during which he threatened two teenagers with an axe.
According to a statement of agreed facts from the time, Simon knocked on the front door about 4.30pm on July 6, 2016, and told the 16-year-old boy who answered that he wanted to "come inside and look for people".
When he was refused entry, Simon went to the back deck and picked up an axe which he used to smash glass panels on a rear door before using the weapon to break his way into the house through a side door.
The 16-year-old and a 19-year-old woman who was also home at the time hid in one of the bedrooms while they waited for police to arrive. They attempted to remove the fly screen from the window so they could climb out but stopped when they saw Simon with the axe outside.
He said to them: "F---ing pigs, I'll come at you too".
Police soon arrived and arrested Simon. He was on parole at the time.
The Herald reported on Monday that the two officers attacked at Wickham last week had been discharged from hospital at the weekend.
The State Crime Command's Homicide Squad is conducting a critical incident investigation into what unfolded at Bishopgate Street. There will be an independent review of the findings.
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