Sergeant Luke Warburton relives moment he was shot by mentally ill patient
Graphic CCTV footage that captured the moment hero dog handler Luke Warburton was pulled bleeding heavily from a hospital emergency bay after being shot by a patient has been revealed in court. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
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GRAPHIC CCTV footage that captured the moment hero dog handler Luke Warburton was pulled bleeding heavily from a hospital emergency bay after being shot by a patient has been revealed in court.
Sergeant Warburton, whose life was saved by quick-acting hospital doctors, relived the horror in the District Court as he watched the footage being played in the trial of his attacker, former nurse Michael de Guzman.
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It shows de Guzman, 42, who had been using the drug ice, wheeling his intravenous drip across the emergency department at Nepean Hospital to talk to Dr Ma Guinto in January 2016.
Moments later, the doctor goes to emergency bay 12 where he disappears inside.
As de Guzman grabs her and holds a pair of hospital scissors to her throat, her screams alert her colleagues who rush to her aid where for 20 terrifying minutes, the doctor was held hostage.
Sergeant Warburton was the first officer on the scene and the CCTV footage from two cameras shows him walking into the curtained-off emergency bay where the court has been told he tried to negotiate with de Guzman.
There is no sound on the footage but the court has heard that de Guzman repeatedly threatened to kill Dr Guinto if the police came any closer.
Sergeant Warburton had unknowingly unlocked his holster and moments after Dr Guinto is seen being led away, de Guzman grabbed his police-issue Glock and shot him in the leg, severing his femoral artery.
The footage shows the moment the shot rang out and staff dragging the bleeding officer from the bay by his shoulders to get him to safety as quickly as possible.
Hospital security guard Barry Jennings is also shot in the leg.
Senior Constable Lisa Myers then moves into the emergency bay, her gun drawn and pointing at de Guzman.
Inside the bay but out of sight of the cameras, her colleague Senior Constable Timothy Duffy placed his finger in the slide of the Glock to stop de Guzman firing again.
De Guzman, who had worked as a nurse at Westmead Hospital, has pleaded not guilty on the grounds of mental illness to 11 charges including shooting with intent to kill Sergeant Warburton.
There is no dispute over what happened at the hospital or that de Guzman suffered from mental illness.
But the prosecution case is that de Guzman was responsible for his actions because he had been using the drug ice.
His wife, Lyn de Guzman, told the court today that before that day, he had never showed any sings of violence towards her or anyone else and had been a good father to their two children.
Before and after his arrest that day, de Guzman had been yelling about delusions that his wife had been kidnapped by the Russian mafia and used as a prostitute.
Ms de Guzman said he had never said that before.
The judge-alone trial continues before Judge Christopher Robison.