‘I want a bullet’: WA Police shoot man who ‘lunged with knife’ in Gosnells
WA Police have shot a man who allegedly lunged at them with a knife in Perth’s east on Monday night after repeatedly telling officers “just shoot me, I want a bullet”.
A large number of police officers attended a property on Wilsley Street in Gosnells around 5.40pm as part of an investigation into a robbery outside a nearby Centrelink office earlier that day where the victim was cut with a knife.
The scene in Gosnells on Monday night. Credit: 9 News Perth
WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the robbery suspect, aged in his 40s, confronted police on the verge and refused to drop a large knife.
“Police challenged him, primarily with Tasers initially, I believe up to five Tasers were deployed,” he said.
“We then spent probably the next 20 minutes negotiating with the man, trying to control him, but the knife wasn’t coming out of his hand, that was the challenge.”
Blanch said he had watched the police body worn footage of the incident, and claimed the man was shot twice after shouting at police to shoot him, and lunging at an officer.
“I am very comfortable at this stage that the police officers did an amazing job, and it’s sad for everyone involved,” he said.
The man is in a critical but stable condition in Royal Perth Hospital after being shot in the shoulder and hand, which ricocheted into another part of his body.
Blanch said he was well known to police and had an extensive criminal history.
