Troy Van Den Bemt death: Coroner inquest into Park Orchards police shooting

The surveillance officer who killed a Park Orchards armed robber has given evidence at a Coroner’s investigation into the shooting.

Serial armed robber Troy Van Den Bemt.

A police officer has told a court how he hid in a bottle shop aisle to text his wife in case he was killed, moments before an armed robbery went down in Park Orchards.

The covert surveillance officer, who shot Mooroolbark crook Troy Van Den Bemt, gave evidence on the third day of the Coroner’s Court mandatory inquest into the 48-year-old crook’s death on August 9.

Van Den Bemt was part of an armed robbery crew on a crime spree through Melbourne’s east when he was shot and killed by police on January 28, 2018.

The gunman and his gang were under police surveillance when he stormed Park Orchards Cellars armed with a sawn-off shotgun at 8.50pm.

Van Den Bemt’s crew had committed a series of armed robberies and undercover operatives were tracking the three-man gang, which also included Michael Nash and Jeffrey Wright.

Following Van Den Bemt’s death, Wright was handed 23-months jail term, and Nash was sentenced to seven years and two months behind bars.

Coroner Jacqui Hawkins’ investigation will look into the circumstances surrounding the man’s 2018 death, the actions of the police units involved and whether Van Den Bemt’s death was avoidable – including if he could have been arrested prior to the armed robbery.

The court heard on the day of the incident, members of the state surveillance unit (SSU) were assigned to keep tabs on the bandits as part of the armed crime squad’s Operation Masonry.

Information received was the crooks had been committing armed robberies with a sawn off shot gun in Mitcham, Surrey Hills and Ringwood.

That evening the SSU operatives realised there could be another crime afoot and followed the crooks to Park Orchards.

“At this stage I was aware the Special Operations Group had been deployed, but due to our location they were still some distance off,” the operative said.

The stolen Kluger, known to be used in the other armed robberies, appeared to be circling and running reconnaissance on the bottle shop.

The court heard the surveillance officers had parked at the shops suspecting a possible armed robbery was about to go down.

The pair made a decision one would head into the bottle shop and assess the store layout and try to get the staff out of harm’s way.

In his evidence submitted to the court the operative said he stood near the doorway of the bottle shop forming a risk assessment to decide a course of action to protect the people if an armed robbery happened.

The officer told the court after he entered the shop he hid in the first aisle for a moment.

“I’d had an uncharacteristic argument with my wife that morning and I sent her a text message because I thought that would be the last chance I got to speak to my wife,” the officer said.

“My father was a police officer who almost lost his life in the line of duty and he taught us never to leave anything unsaid.

“I had a fairly strong feeling something nefarious was about to occur and I realised I put myself into a position of fairly foolhardy peril.”

Two men Kanru Wang and his father Sean were in the shop at the time and the officer said he tried to distract the younger man to keep him down the back and away from any impending danger, assuming the crook would want the cash register.

But moments later the officer could see a person wearing a black balaclava with a sawn-off double barrel shot gun coming into the shop yelling “get down, get down”.

The younger man tried to run towards the back of the shop, but Van Den Bemt chased him to a storeroom where there was an older man.

The operative told the court the young man picked up a pole and swung it at the robber, whose gun was within a metre of the young man.

In his evidence the officer said he feared the robber would shoot and kill the victims.

The officer said he drew his pistol and fired two or three shots at the man with the shotgun.

“It didn’t even seem to affect him, it was surreal,” court documents said.

“The male with the shotgun seemed to me to rotate towards me, and I thought he was going to fire the shotgun at me, so I fired two further shots at his upper torso.”

The man with the gun ran towards the front of the shop and the officer said he thought Van Dem Bemt turned towards the trio to fire the shotgun.

“I fired two more shots at his upper body,” he said.

“It was only when I fired those last few shots that the male fell forwards to the ground and dropped the firearm, at which point I kept him covered with my firearm.”

The Coroner will continue to hear evidence at the inquest until Wednesday.