Two SA Police officers give victim impact statements following confrontation with armed man Aaron Michael McCormick
They joined SA Police to help people but two young officers have told a court of their terror after being called to Ingle Farm by a man who attacked them with a knife and flaming gas bottle.
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A man armed himself with a knife and a flaming gas bottle, called triple-0 for assistance and vowed “police are going to suffer when they get here”, a court has heard.
On Thursday, two SA Police officers told the District Court of the terror they felt when they were forced to shoot Aaron Michael McCormick in May 2019.
McCormick had already severely injured a woman and withstood two taser blasts, leaving the partners no choice but to draw their weapons and fire.
One of the officers, who was 11 months into his career at the time, told the court they had tried ordering McCormick to stand down, and even retreated from him, to no avail.
“There’s no training that could have prepared me, or any other police officer, for what occurred upon our arrival that night,” he said.
“Had I not been able to draw my firearm as quickly as I did, I’m sure I would have been killed or seriously injured.”
The other officer, who had served for almost three years, said he still struggled with the thought his partner might have died that night.
“I wanted to help people on their worst day … I never thought people would ring triple-0 and request police when they had violent intentions toward them,” he said.
“I didn’t get into this job to get a call-out to get assaulted or worse.”
McCormick, 21, of Ingle Farm, pleaded guilty to four aggravated counts of threatening to kill or endanger life, and one aggravated count of assault against a woman.
The identities of all three of his victims have been suppressed.
On Thursday, the court heard he called triple-0 saying the woman he injured “is almost dead” and “police are going to suffer when they get here”.
It heard the officers arrived to find McCormick carrying a gas bottle emitting “vapours”, from which erupted “a flame about 20m high”.
He advanced on them with a knife, withstanding the taser and ignoring demands to stand down, prompting both officers to fire – one bullet struck him in the chest.
Chris Weir, for McCormick, said his client had acted “out of character” because he was under financial pressure, missing his family and overweight from binge eating.
“His emotional state reached a crescendo … his motivation was not to injure or kill the officers – his intention was to be killed.
“He is deeply disgusted that he hit a woman, he is sorry to the officers and he’s eternally grateful he was not killed that night.”
Judge Michael Boylan said the offending was not merely out of character but “bizarre”.
“He has otherwise led a blameless life and inexplicably, out of the blue, he has committed these serious offences,” he said.
“I don’t know how I am to judge what his risk of reoffending is, and that is a worry.”
He remanded McCormick in custody to be sentenced on a date to be set.