Man pulled gun in NSW medical clinic, took staff hostage before fatal police shooting

A man armed with a gun has been shot dead by police outside a New South Wales medical centre after holding doctors and medical staff hostage and seizing a police ballistic shield in a tense stand-off.
Senior police have called it a tragic death both for the man and his loved ones, and the police who had rushed to the scene.
Police have been threatened with a firearm before shooting a man dead on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Police were called to the medical clinic on Junction Street in Nowra after reports of a 34-year-old patient pulling a gun while speaking to his doctor just after 1pm on Wednesday.
The man had a very limited, non-violent criminal history but had interacted with police amid increasing concerns for his mental health, Assistant NSW Police Commissioner Peter Cotter told reporters on Wednesday.
“During conversations with the doctor the man has become very agitated and spoken many alarming things,” the police commander said.
“The conversation was agitated, the conversation was confrontational and thereafter the man produced a gun.”
Three of the staff managed to escape and raise the alarm, a fourth staff member followed some time later and the gunman was left alone in the building.
Negotiators and officers spoke to the armed man through the surgery’s windows, doors and walls until about 2.40pm when the man emerged.
“The man produced the gun and brandished it at police,” Cotter said.
Police were holding a ballistic shield but dropped it during the confrontation, Cotter said, and retreated.
The gunman picked up the shield and raised his weapon to police. The officers then opened fire.
“He was hit multiple times, and he remained at the scene where tragically, a little while later, he was pronounced dead, suffering from those gunshot wounds,” Cotter said.
A Glock semi-automatic pistol was found at the scene. Police are unsure if the man fired any shots.
“Any death is tragic. Every life equals a life. Police respond to protect life. They responded today in 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,” Cotter said.
“He brandished the gun at them. He was armed with one of our own shields. 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.”
Police have established a crime scene and a critical incident investigation. It will be led by the homicide squad and reviewed by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC).
Part of the investigation will focus on how many police officers fired their weapons, whether the man held a gun licence and how the negotiations progressed before the shooting.
“It’s tragic for the police who responded and had to use the force that they did today. It’s equally tragic for the family and friends left behind that are connected with this young man, who is 34,” Cotter said.
Police tape and cars remained on Junction Street on Wednesday evening as police continued the investigation.
The shooting took place about 200 metres from the main shopping strip in Nowra. Shopkeepers said some stores and banks closed early once news broke of the siege further up the street.
Hollie Spence, of Holliewood Hair and Beauty, was working just two doors down from the medical centre when police blocked the street.
“I came out to see what was going on … police were swarmed everywhere, sometimes we get the odd police car go by but not often, but the way these guys came in was pretty intense,” Spence said.
“When they arrived it was pretty eerie – they told everyone to clear the street.”
Spence said her clients were becoming increasingly agitated given the uncertainty. They then heard “six or more gun shots very quickly”.
“Then the police seemed to relax and took their vests off,” Spence said.
“You see things around town – cops all the time – but to actually see local cops in the main street in the home town you’ve grown up in … to see that many cops and guns in this place [is] very confronting.
“I like watching crime shows, but to hear and see that happen that close and not know what is happening … it was pretty nerve wracking.”
Sarah Cameron, a retail assistant at the clothing store Ghanda, said she had heard the shots being fired.
“We just knew there was a guy up at Junction [Street] Medical with a [gun],” she said.
“[We’ve] heard about instances like with a knife or things like that, but it’s a completely different ballpark to a [gun].”
NSW Police responses to mental health-related stand-offs have come under scrutiny from mental health experts, the LECC and grieving families following a series of deaths last year.
Krista Kach, 47, died in hospital on September 14 after police shot her with a beanbag round to bring to a close a nine-hour siege near Newcastle.
Jesse Deacon, 43, was killed in July after he was shot by police in his Glebe home after a Taser failed.
In May, Clare Nowland, 95, who had dementia, died after she was Tasered in her Cooma nursing home by police. Also in May, Sydney man Steve Pampalian, 41, was shot dead after police responded to reports he had threatened neighbours with a knife.
All were armed with bladed weapons, unlike the man in Nowra, who was armed with a firearm.