Ice addict Dwayne Johnstone shot dead trying to escape prison officers

It was meant to be the start of a new life for Dwayne Johnstone — the chance to get clean. But it ended with a fatal shot in the back as he tried to escape Corrective Services officers, leaving his mother Kerry Shanahan devastated.

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It was meant to be the start of a new life — the chance to get clean and move away from the drug scene that had Dwayne Johnstone in and out of jail most of his adult life.

The 43-year-old was shot dead by a NSW Corrective Services officers after attacking one officer while trying to get away from Lismore Base Hospital on March 15.

Just hours earlier he wept in the dock of Lismore Local Court when he was refused bail over the alleged assault of a man while armed with a stun baton.

After suffering what was believed to have been an epileptic seizure, Johnstone was taken to the local hospital for treatment.

“His father just rang me and said ‘Dwayne’s dead, he’s been shot, I can’t talk — it was at Lismore’,” Johnstone's mother Kerry Shanahan told The Daily Telegraph.

Dwayne Johnstone, was shot dead by prison officers at Lismore Base Hospital in March. Picture: Supplied

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“Dwayne was stuck in the system, he was going OK, or I thought he was,” she said.

Ms Shanahan said her son first tried drugs aged 14 and in 2009 was jailed after robbing an American poker player of his $31,000 winnings after leaving a tournament at Crown.

The court heard Johnstone had been smoking ice and cannabis daily and at the time of the offence owed his co-accused a drug debt of $3000.

Ms Shanahan, who has worked in the mental health sector, said ice abuse was “the scourge of the Earth”.

Johnstone’s mother Kerry Shanahan. Picture: Tim Hunter

Johnstone has been battling a drug problem since the age of 14.

Ms Shanahan said people on ice thought “they’re invincible” and that Johnstone was a good person when not on drugs.

“He had a gentle heart, he would do anything for anyone, he was a beautiful boy and very loving — everything was about family for him, even when he was in jail,” she said.

She said Johnstone travelled to the Lismore area to work on a friend’s garlic farm.

“He was working on the farm, but I think he got himself into a lot of shit with the drugs and what have you — it just didn’t work out,” she said.

Lismore Base Hospital the night Johnstone was shot trying to escape Corrective Services officers. Picture: Ryan Curran

“I knew Dwayne. Every time he got out of jail he would come stay with me, I knew he was on it. I used to go off my face at him and say ‘you’re not going near me because I’ve got the kids and I’m not losing them because you’re on your drugs’.”

Johnstone, who was in shackles and hand cuffs, was fatally shot in the back after ignoring a warning shot fired by one of the officers.

A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said investigations into the shooting were ongoing.