Troy John Currey named as car thief shot dead by police on Bruce Highway

The identity of a 36-year-old man shot dead by police near Gladstone can be revealed along with details about a chillingly similar standoff on the Gold Coast, other crimes across Queensland and insight from his friends about where it all went wrong.

The car thief fatally shot by police when he refused to put down a rifle during a confrontation in Central Queensland can be revealed as Troy John Currey, a criminal who had previously screamed at police to kill him while holding a gun on them.

The memory of the 36-year-old pulling a firearm on Gold Coast police outside Southside Courthouse remains etched in Currey’s friend’s mind.

That friend, who asked to remain anonymous, told this publication on Wednesday Currey confided in him many years ago that when he died, he wanted to be shot dead by police.

During the shocking 2015 stand-off Currey reportedly yelled “shoot me, shoot me” at officers.

His friend said he understood why people believed Currey was a bad person after he stole a car from an older woman and pulled a rifle on police at a Miriam Vale rest stop on Monday but said drugs had prompted his behaviour.

He was certain Currey was on ice at the time, after his life recently spiralled again following a break-up.

Currey had recently told another long-time friend Dylan Nikeller he would never be going back to jail and was “having the most fun in his life”.

Mr Nikeller said Currey had not only finished rehabilitation and was in a relationship, but he had bought his first car while working at the first job he had ever held, as a concreter.

His criminal record has been described as “appalling” in court, with entries that include “brazen” car thefts, assaulting a police officer, and he was disqualified from driving.

Currey appeared shirtless in Hervey Bay Magistrates Court in 2019 while being held down by three prison officers.

The three Maryborough Correctional Centre guards dressed in riot gear were forced to hold Currey down when he appeared via videolink in court in 2019, and he appeared in Ipswich Magistrates Court in 2021 for 16 offences for 2021.

Before his Hervey Bay court appearance, a prison officer told the magistrate that team leaders had been sent to physically escort him to the courtroom after he refused to go.

Troy John Currey was shot dead by police after he pulled a rifle on them at a Miriam Vale rest stop on April 23, 2024.

About 30 minutes passed before three prison officers wearing vests, helmets and gloves, emerged dragging Currey into the room.

He was in custody at the jail for allegedly threatening a Dundowran businessman while demanding his car and demanded to represent himself.

Currey told the court at the time he had applied for bail so he could go to rehabilitation but knew it would not be approved.

Magistrate Stephen Guttridge told him he needed legal representation, but Currey said, “nah don’t worry about it”.

“It’s not a simple unlawful use of a motor vehicle because it has a circumstance of an aggravation where you have threatened to use violence,” Mr Guttridge said.

When Currey appeared in the Ipswich court in May, 2021, he was serving a jail sentence but was set for release in July.

Magistrate David Shepherd said that on January when in custody, Currey “took an exception regarding medication” and assaulted a police officer.

“You had to be restrained,” Mr Shepherd said.

He was in court for 16 offences, including enter premises and stealing, serious assault; receiving; going armed in public; wilful damage; driving when disqualified; and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

Currey pleaded guilty.

Police Prosecutor Rose Molinaro said Currey had also been sentenced by the Brisbane District Court in December 2019 for two charges of stealing cars, including one offence that had been “quite brazen”.

Sgt Molinaro said Currey walked up to a car that had its engine running outside a business on July 6, 2019 and got in.

Its owner ran to the car and got into the back seat to try and secure his belongings.

Currey had reversed the car then stopped, a video showing him appearing to be threatening the victim.

“He has an appalling history,” Sgt Molinaro said.

A charge of unlawfully being found in a yard had involved Currey being found on top of a roof at 4.50am and throwing roof tiles in January, 2020.

Living in Rosewood at the time of the Ipswich offences, the court heard he climbed onto a roof of a stranger’s house and began throwing down roof tiles and also took part in service station break-ins that netted in excess of $25,000 in cigarettes.

Sgt Molinaro said there were nine pages of written facts and she tended nine photographs relating to the offences, but only a brief outline of the facts of the charges before the court was read onto the public record.

She said the enter premises charges involved cigarettes stolen from service stations at Beerwah, Cooroy and Toogoolawah.

“A hammer was used to smash the front doors,” Sgt Molinaro said.

Defence lawyer Ms Ryan said Currey had spent 421 days in custody and she sought a penalty that would not be too crushing.

She argued for a jail penalty of 2.5 years, saying there had been no violence or threats involved.

Troy John Currey had spent most of his life in and out of jail but told friends he was recently at his happiest.

Ms Ryan described Currey’s childhood as complex, saying he had been homeless at times and spent time in juvenile detention.

While in jail he completed Bible studies and a transformation program, and was remorseful for his conduct.

The magistrate said any penalty would only be a direct consequence of Currey’s own actions.

Mr Shepherd said Currey had taken in excess of $25,000 worth of cigarettes and other property within six weeks of being put on parole.

“Your history does you no favours,” Mr Shepherd said.

“I agree,” Currey said.

“Protection of the community looms large (in penalty consideration),” Mr Shepherd said.

The magistrate also referred to the Southport incident with police, noting he was now serving a sentence imposed in 2019.

“It was not the first time that you have been in physical (confrontations) with police,” he said.

“You were on a roof and had two knives. You removed roof tiles and damaged windows and other property and a police motor vehicle,” Mr Shepherd said.

He said an offence on January 6 “involved significant property”.

Mr Shepherd sentenced Currey to a series of jail orders to be served concurrently, ranging from three years down to three months.

The new jail terms were added on top of his existing jail order.

He was granted eligibility to begin his parole application from May 7, 2022.

He was also disqualified from driving for five years.

Tracey Rawlings had her husband's car stolen by a man waving a stolen, long arm rifle before he was later shot by police on the Bruce Highway at Colosseum, south of Gladstone.

Mr Nikeller, who had known Currey for two decades, said his friend had been was happy until recently.

But he said Currey was devastated after his relationship disintegrated with his girlfriend in Cairns and he was on his way to see Mr Nikeller on the Gold Coast when the shocking incident occurred.

The mate who asked to remain anonymous said Currey stayed with another friend for several days and the pair got high on ice.

“When he was on ice he was always a completely different person,” he said.

“He became paranoid and he thought people wanted to kill him.”

The men said Currey had a difficult relationship with his family and they no longer knew if they were in his life.

“He had a good home, but when he was 10 he started hanging out with the wrong people,” Mr Nikeller said.

The men said the family, described as religious, kicked him out of home in his early teens when he “kept going against their values”.

“I know he was living in a crack house at 12,” Mr Nikeller said.

He said his friend began using ice young, and he was eventually sentenced to juvenile detention.

Mr Nikeller believes Currey’s hatred for authority figures, such as police, stemmed partly from an alleged sexual assault while in detention by a person in a position of power.

Mr Nikeller said Currey did not like talking about it because he felt it “belittled him”, but he tried to confide in his family.

“He was a kind bloke, he was a good bloke,” he said

“He wasn’t a monster.

“He would give you the shirt off his back.”

‘I could have died’: Woman tells of gun drama before man shot by police on hwy

A Queensland woman who had her husband’s car stolen at gunpoint by a man who was later shot on the Bruce Highway south of Gladstone by police has described the moment she realised she ‘could have died’.

Tracey Rawlings said the 36-year-old Cairns man, who had earlier stolen another vehicle which had a long arm rifle and ammunition it, had only one thing in mind. Getting her keys.

“He did not use profanity. He did not swear at me or anything,’’ Mrs Rawlings told 7News.

“All he said was give me the keys.’’

Mrs Rawlings said the man threatened her with the long arm firearm before fleeing in her husband’s white Nissan utility.

“He turned around to walk up the back and said ‘Don’t call the police’ and waved the rifle around.’’

“And that’s when I went: ‘Oh yeah. I could have just died’.’’

Tracey Rawlings describes the gunpoint theft of her husband’s car. PHOTO: 7News

The driver sped off and was driving so erratically that the trailer attached to the vehicle overturned.

The family’s gate was broken as he drove straight through it.

But Mrs Rawlings said the man did not point the gun directly at her.

‘I’m more worried about the flu I’ve got at the moment actually. I feel pretty lousy,’’ she said.

The 36-year-old man was later shot dead during a confrontation with three officers at a rest stop south of Miriam Vale, in Central Queensland.

He had pulled over on the highway and aimed the loaded gun at police, Regional Crime Coordinator Detective Superintendent Darrin Shadlow.

The drama began about 10.50am when a green utility was stolen from Bororen with the long-arm rifle and ammo inside.

Detective Superintendent Darrin Shadlow said police patrols spotted the man pulled up in the second stolen vehicle to the side of the Bruce Highway about 11.50am.

”A male person has got out of the vehicle, armed with a rifle. The male person has pointed that rifle at police,” Supt Shadlow said.

“Police have confronted him, called upon him to drop the firearm, he didn’t do that and unfortunately police have had to engage and subsequently shot that male person.”

A witness at a roadhouse near the shooting told media on Monday that he’d received an alert that a gunman was travelling toward his business.

“He was just shooting at whatever was going past as he was driving past,’’ the man told 9 News.

“A truck driver come in who had a couple of bullet holes in his truck where he had been shot at. “He was shaken up a little bit … I made him a coffee.’’

Supt Shadlow said police wanted to speak to anyone who had any dealings with the man.

“If any of the members of the public does have information in relation to that, we would like to hear from them and speak with him in relation to that,’’ he said.

Police are investigating if other car thefts in the Central Queensland area may be related.

There were also attempts to break into another gun safe in the area, with police saying the description of the offender matched that of the man shot on the side of the highway.

Originally published as Troy John Currey named as car thief shot dead by police on Bruce Highway