A 59-year-old man is in critical condition after being shot by police at Kingaroy General Hospital- the third police shooting this week. It is alleged the man approached police while armed with a knife. Hospital staff are being praised for shielding the public from any threat.
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00:00The regional hospital went into lockdown on Friday night after a man allegedly armed with a knife headed towards a waiting area full of people.
00:10Les Lane was among them.
00:12Coming out of the toilet with a knife.
00:16The knife was approximately, I'd say about 20 centimetres long.
00:20The hospital staff then went well and truly above and beyond their call of duty, putting themselves in between the patient and the knife wielding person.
00:32Moments later, Mr Lane says the man walked out the front entrance and it was then witnesses reported hearing a single shot.
00:39Obviously we being in the triage room, just heard a loud pop.
00:43It was definite to me that there was one gunshot fired and it was only a matter of seconds, 10 to 20 seconds that they were calling for the paramedics to come and help.
00:54Medical attention was immediately provided to that male person and he was subsequently flown to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
01:02Where he remains in a critical but stable condition.
01:05Detectives say the man was known to them.
01:08It's a traumatic experience for anyone involved.
01:11You've got the male person's family, the male person involved, police that attended.
01:16I mean police don't want to be attending scenes like this.
01:19The police union says officers are being called to similar situations far too often.
01:24My thoughts are for everyone involved.
01:26My colleagues, what they were confronted with last night will have an everlasting effect upon them.
01:33An investigation will be led by the Ethical Standards Command into the incident and review the use of force by the officers involved.