A 34-year-old man has been shot dead after multiple police opened fire outside a medical clinic on the New South Wales south coast after he allegedly confronted officers while holding a gun.
The man was already known to police and had a “very minor criminal record for nonviolent offences”, the NSW police assistant commissioner Peter Cotter said.
Officers were called to the Nowra practice before 1pm on Wednesday after staff in the clinic reported the male patient had produced a gun while seeing one of the doctors.
“During conversations with the doctor, the man has become extremely agitated and spoken many alarming things,” Cotter said.
“During that conversation and unprovoked, he produced a firearm.”
Three people escaped from the practice during the incident, police said.
A fourth person eventually also escaped, leaving the man inside alone. During this time, police said, they spoke with him “through the open door and through the walls and the windows” before he eventually left the building about 2.40pm.
He was still holding the gun, believed to be a Glock, police said.
“The man emerged and he engaged in further conversation, but at this stage the man produced the gun and brandished it at police,” Cotter said.
“The police at the time were holding a ballistic shield. That ballistic shield was dropped during this initial confrontation and the police retreated.
“The man picked up the shield, further brandished the gun, raising it in the air and raising it at police and a number of shots were fired by police in the direction of the man. He was hit multiple times.”
The man was then treated by paramedics but he died at the scene.
Cotter could not say how many officers had opened fire, nor if their body-worn cameras were turned on at the time. Other officers attending did have their cameras turned on and the footage will be included in the investigation.
The senior officer said the man did “not have a significant criminal history” but was known to police largely through mental health incidents.
“He has a very, very, very minor criminal record for nonviolent offences,” Cotter said.
“He is known to police through our intervention with him generally in the mental health space.”
The man’s family was informed late on Wednesday afternoon.
The critical incident team from the force’s homicide squad will investigate. Police said the investigation would be subject to an independent review.
Cotter said it was a “tragic” incident that would be examined closely.
“Police … responded today in the absolute good faith, responding to an alarm of a man with a gun in a surgery holding people hostage, holding people captive, brandishing that gun. They did their very, very best to negotiate with this person,” he said.
“I can’t step into the minds of our police officers and it’s not my role to, except to say obviously there was fear in their minds, and they acted upon that fear.”
No other patients were injured and clinic staff escaped without physical harm.
