Gunman Rick Maddison phoned police in the hours before he killed Senior Constable Brett Forte

GUNMAN Rick Maddison phoned police in the hours before he shot dead Senior Constable Brett Forte in a roadside ambush, raising a theory he deliberately lured police into a trap.

Police enforce an exclusion zone near Gatton as Rick Maddison held officers at bay. Picture: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

• How cop killer was taken down
• Surrender never an option

GUNMAN Rick Maddison phoned police in the hours before he shot dead Senior Constable Brett Forte in a roadside ambush, raising a theory he deliberately lured police into a trap.

Sources say Maddison — who had a series of serious charges against him dropped last year — was “fixated” on police and others.

Rick Maddison was shot dead yesterday after a lengthy stand-off with Queensland police.

Multiple people confirmed Maddison phoned police on Monday morning, with one person saying the call was made from a public phone box directly to the Tactical Crime Squad office.

Snr Constable Forte was a Tactical Crime Squad officer.

Later that day police spotted Madison in a vehicle in Mary St, Toowoomba, and followed him up to 40km before he pulled over on Wallers Rd near Gatton.

Maddison got out of his vehicle and opened fire on police with an automatic weapon, killing Snr Constable Forte.

The property where the siege took place.

Before the car had pulled over, Maddison had made no attempt to flee pursuing police and was at times driving at slow speed well below the speed limit.

“He certainly knew police were following him,” one officer said.

Another said: “It seems like he was baiting them — that he lured them there.”

Maddison, 40, was last year facing a raft of charges including eight counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, assault occasioning bodily harm while armed, two counts of deprivation of liberty, torture, common assault, unlawfully wounding another and threatening violence.

Senior Constable Brett Forte and his wife Susan, a fellow police officer.

But the charges were suddenly dropped last October when prosecutors offered no evidence. It is understood the alleged female victim decided not to testify, with one source suggesting she had been in fear.

But the charges would have sharpened Maddison’s grudge against police. Friends and associates variously described him as “paranoid” and believing police were out to get him.

It has been reported that Senior Constable Forte was trying to save his partner’s life as their car was sprayed with Maddison’s machine gun fire.

Flowers for a police hero outside Toowoomba police station. Picture: Sarah Motherwell/AAP

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said Sen Const. Forte was hit immediately but still had “the sense, the fortitude and the courage to try and back out of the situation to try and protect his partner who was sitting beside him in the car”.

“I would call him a hero in every sense of the word,” Mr Stewart said.

The officer will be honoured with a minute’s silence before the start of tonight’s State of Origin at Suncorp Stadium.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers, who knew Sen Const. Forte, said everything was being done for his grieving family.

“I have been in contact with some of Brett’s family, I haven’t spoken to his wife because she is too distraught. They are really doing it tough at the moment,” Mr Leavers told the Nine Network.