SOURCE-- SMH:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/man-...ed-gun-to-shoot-selfharmer-20091118-il1v.html
Man dead: officer with Taser used gun to shoot 'self-harmer'
GEORGINA ROBINSON AND JONATHAN DART
November 18, 2009 - 1:09PM
A female police officer of 21 years standing was armed with a
Taser stun gun when she shot a man who had stabbed himself in the kitchen of a house in Sydney’s south-west, police say.
The 36-year-old man died in hospital after the sergeant shot him once in the kitchen of his father’s Lakemba home this morning.
Acting Commissioner Stuart Wilkins said the man was being treated by paramedics when he got up from the kitchen floor and confronted the four police officers who’d been sent to the house.
‘‘We believe he has grabbed the knife in the kitchen and confronted police,’’ Commissioner Wilkins said.
‘‘During that confrontation that male has been shot once by police from Campsie Local Area Command.
‘‘A further struggle has ensued and the male has committed self harm to himself again.
‘‘Police have wrestled the knife from that male person, he was given immediate attention from the ambulance personnel who were on scene.’’
Mr Wilkins would not say whether the officer used her stun gun or capsicum spray before firing her gun.
The sergeant was undergoing counselling before being formally interviewed about the shooting.
‘‘The officer, the sergeant, involved was armed with a Taser at the time and is Taser trained,’’ Mr Wilkins told reporters.
The father of the man said his son was trying to kill himself, said neighbour, Michael Pokorny, who had talked to the man's father, Adrian Salter, outside the house, after the shooting.
"He was very upset and he was all bloody on his hands," Mr Pokorny said.
Mr Pokorny said he was mowing the lawn and did not hear any gun shots.
His wife saw a lot of police cars outside Mr Salter’s house when she left to go grocery shopping.
"I ran out and then I talked to [Mr Salter]," Mr Pokorny said.
Mr Salter lived in the house alone but his son had been staying with him for a while, he said.
A police critical incident team and the homicide squad are investigating the shooting.
No police officers or paramedics were hurt, police said.
Last year, Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said the use of stun guns could have prevented the shooting death of Roni Levi on Bondi Beach in 1997.
The 33-year-old French photographer was shot four times in the chest by two police officers after he allegedly lunged at them with a long kitchen knife.
Police were criticised in June this year following the shooting death of a 25-year-old man in Armidale.
The man had stolen a knife from a cafe and threatened a plain-clothes police officer before being chased by the officer and ending up in an alley, where the shooting occurred.
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"confronted" is one of thoes ambiguous words. Could mean anything from a stern word to lunging with a knife. Judging by the self-harm post incident, suicide by cop seems speculatively likely. Ah well, another mentally ill fatality on the NSW police forces chalkboard.
