What we know about the fatal shooting of a Tasmania Police officer

Australia Broadcast Center

5 hours ago

The Tasmanian police community is in shock after an officer in the process of executing a "routine" job was shot dead on Monday morning — the first shooting death on duty in more than 100 years.
The 57-year-old constable, a "genuine, dependable police officer who served the Tasmanian community well for the past 25 years", according to Tasmania's top cop, died while attending a house in North Motton, in the state's north-west.
During a media conference on Monday afternoon, Tasmania Police Commissioner Donna Adams said the officer, along with one other uniformed officer, attended the property to serve a warrant.
The Specialist Operations Group (SOG), the state's heavily armed specialist tactical unit, was stationed at the bottom of a long driveway at the property.
But questions remain about why the alleged offender opened fire on the officer — and why the police specialist tactical group remained at the end of a driveway, sending the uniform officers in first.
Here's what we know about the incident so far.
The uniformed officers were attending a residence on Allison Road in North Motton, a remote town south of Ulverstone.
The officers were there to serve a court-approved warrant to repossess a home — described as a "routine" operation.
The deceased officer has not been named yet out of respect for the family, some of whom had not been advised of his passing at the time of yesterday's press conference.
However, Commissioner Adams confirmed the officer was a 57-year-old "senior and experienced" male who had a "distinguished 25-year career" and held the rank of constable.
He was accompanied by one other "senior experienced sergeant".
"As soon as those contacts have been made, we'll provide further information about the identity of the police officer."
The occupant of the residence was present when the officers arrived, Commissioner Adams said.
At some point between the officer leaving his vehicle and making his way to the front door, he was fatally shot.
The SOG were stationed at the end of the property's driveway near the gate.
They responded once they heard the shot.
She confirmed a number of first responders, police and "other services" attended the incident.
At Monday's press conference, Commissioner Adams said she was "struggling to give you the information".
"I've been a police officer for 38 years and I've never seen an incident like this that's resulted in the loss of a life of one of our colleagues and friends," she told reporters.
The last police shooting death in Tasmania occurred over a century ago, in 1922, according to Tasmania Police Association president Shane Tilley.
Police have not provided any details about the identity of the alleged offender, other than confirming he is a male.
Commissioner Adams said she did not know his age at the time of yesterday's presser.
Asked if the alleged offender was known to police, she said a Professional Standards investigation will look into understanding "the profile of the offender and whether there were any circumstances that may have led to him having a firearm".
As of Monday evening, the offender was in hospital receiving treatment for non-life threatening injuries and yet to be charged.
The SOG is Tasmania Police's tactical response unit, with similar units in other states and territories.
In August 2024, the Tasmanian SOG transitioned from a part-time to full-time unit.
Commissioner Adams said the unit was at the North Motton property "to support the frontline officers".
When pressed by reporters as to why the SOG was required, Commissioner Adams said the investigation will "look at the request for the special operations group to provide the front-line response".
"Now that we have a permanent special operations group, we can deploy [them] in a wider, broader manner," she said.
When pressed further as to why the SOG were at the end of the long driveway at the time of the incident, Commissioner Adams did not answer directly.
"There's lots of questions that we all have as a result of the incident and that's why we need to be really methodical in our investigation," she said.
Commissioner Adams said the SOG had attended around 800 "frontline response jobs" in the last 18 months.
The Police Association of Tasmania's Shane Tilley said it was common for them to assist frontline police officers in a wide range of jobs, including drug squad investigations, searches, or jobs where buildings may need to be breached.
"Some would be high-risk searches … others would have a lower level of risk attached to them … they may not be required to go into an address, or simply just run a little bit of security around the perimeter," Mr Tilly said.
He said delivering a court warrant was an "unusual type of job", but this outcome would not have been expected.
Mr Tilley said the police crew assigned to any given job could reach out to the SOG "if they thought that there was potential for things to develop".
Commissioner Adams said every police commissioner from around Australia had reached out to express their support, including "a number of other senior colleagues".
She said she would remain in the north-west for the next few days to support the family and all those who were in attendance.
"Officer safety is my highest priority, and this incident is a stark reminder of the risks our officers face every day," she said.
Wellbeing support is being provided to all officers and individuals affected by the incident, she said.
"We are doing everything we can to support our officer's colleagues and family, who are understandably devastated."
"The trauma for each of those officers attending in a critical response when one of their own has been killed — I can't imagine the grief they are feeling at the moment.