Theodore fatal shooting
Ross Solly ABC666 interview with Deputy Chief Police Officer Commander Shane Connelly
9 November 2007
Ross Solly: Look there was a fair bit of action yesterday afternoon down at Theodore, and then later on across at Michelago where there was a murder suicide. That's what police are calling it at this stage anyway and I'm sure there are still investigations to be carried out. Commander Shane Connelly is Deputy Chief Police Officer of investigations and support and joins us this morning. Good morning Commander Connelly.
Shane Connelly: Yes good morning Ross, how are you?
Ross Solly: Good thank you and thank you for your time, I know you guys are pretty busy at the moment. What do we know at this stage about what happened yesterday afternoon?
Shane Connelly: Look Ross what we have at the moment is we have a deceased person in the ACT and we understand from our colleagues in NSW they have another deceased person in NSW. We responded yesterday afternoon to a 000 call in the area of Theodore and we deployed resources down there. Firstly we've deployed the uniform resources, they've set up the command control, cordoned and searching procedures to ensure that the public is safe and equally with the police detectives. Now our investigations have commenced in relation to that death in the ACT and a parallel inquiry is taking place as I understand it in NSW, with the Queanbeyan local area command in relation to a death in the area of Michelago.
Ross Solly: Now I noticed, this was at about 2.30pm, I noticed going on the map today, Commander Connelly, that it was quite close to a couple of schools, was there any thought given at any stage to evacuating the schools?
Shane Connelly: No, there was not because of the circumstances that took place Ross, so the way this transpired that wasn't necessary. What I can say is that our police were deployed to the area immediately, to ensure public safety and were well prepared for any eventuality. As you can understand Ross, it's very early to be calling this. We've got to report to the Coroner, as does NSW. To pre-empt those inquiries until we know the full facts is not appropriate. And I guess it's very important to say here to, is that we have a number of grieving families both here and NSW and we really do have to respect their situation as well.
Ross Solly: Yes, no I completely understand that. With a case like this, and in fact a caller has asked, who takes control, is it a NSW case now Commander Connelly, or is it an ACT case?
Shane Connelly: No, what we have is two parallel inquiries, a murder that's being investigated in the Territory of the ACT and NSW Police are investigating a death there.
Ross Solly: I understand that at one stage you did take some of the children, they're teenagers I understand, into protective custody, for what reason was that?
Shane Connelly: Look we have a number of witnesses, there are witnesses involved here. Some of those witnesses require care with trauma counselling and all of those arrangements were made. As you can understand this is a horrific incident for those people that were closely concerned, so it's a normal part of our duties both from an investigation function and a general policing function to look after those traumatised by such as incident.
Ross Solly: Was there any suspected threat to the other members of the family?
Shane Connelly: No, look I won't go into that. I'm satisfied that both the community and the rest of the family are safe and that was our number one concern yesterday, and I can reassure the community that there is no threat to them; this matter is over and is being dealt with accordingly.
Ross Solly: I'm sorry Commander Connelly, just a final question. Do you know if the firearm involved, was it a licensed firearm, do we know anything about that, what sort of a firearm was it?
Shane Connelly: Ross I'm not going to go into the specifics of the firearm, needless to say it was a firearm and the effects of it were devastating. But whether it was licensed or not, I won't go into. I just wanted to make one more comment if I could Ross very quickly. Earlier today you pointed out that, or made a comment that there was a lack of information on this. I do dispute that Ross, you know we're working on nearly triple the press releases that we do in relation to all matters over the last year and I think this is a matter where we just clearly can say only a very small amount because of what we know.
Ross Solly: And thank you for doing that with us this morning Commander Connelly, thank you for your time.
Shane Connelly: Ok, thank you bye, bye.
Ross Solly: Quarter to eight.
Ends//