Victoria Police Special Operations Group (SOG) now ‘The Peacemakers’ after a string of fatal shootings
THE secretive Victoria Police Special Operations Group may have changed tactics now, but once challenging them could very well be your last move.
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THEY are known as the Special Operations Group but within police circles this secretive unit is referred to simply as “The Soggies” or “The Group”.
An elite paramilitary style police garrison, these black-clad cops use special weaponry and train in advanced anti-terror tactics.
They have been known to refer to themselves as the “Sons Of God”.
From a corresponding Biblical passage — Matthew 5:9 — comes their other nickname: “The Peacemakers”.
The SOG is called in to handle heavy situations involving armed suspects, hostages and bomb scenes.
Its members are not to be messed with, but some armed targets — in their wisdom — have, in days gone by, decided to defy their orders and threaten them.
Those targets ended with fatal wounds.
In more recent years, however, the SOG has changed its tactics and adopted different methods to deal with armed offenders.
The group showed a new approach in May 2012 when, instead of storming a home to confront a notorious armed criminal, they waited him out before knocking him over with beanbag rounds — rather than blasting him with heavy-duty SG pellets.
Here are some historic examples where suspects threatened SOG members and paid the ultimate price for doing so.
There were no winners in these fatal incidents which, history shows, have become a thing of the past.
Dead in Brooklyn: Mohamed Chaouk
AN injured SOG officer shot Mohamed Chaouk, 30, twice in self-defence during a raid on his family home in Brooklyn in April 2005, a coroner was told.
According to the evidence presented at an inquest, Mr Chaouk swung a samurai sword at the SOG officer during a dawn raid.
The court heard Mr Chaouk was standing at the top of an internal staircase when he was shot by the officer, Operator 52, who had just sustained a blow to the left forearm from the sword.
The Coroner’s Court was told the officer feared for his life.
“I was calling on him ‘police, don’t move’ constantly ... it all happened so quickly,” Operator 52 told the inquest.
“The sword struck my left arm above my wrist, forcing my gun down. As he was raising it (the sword) up again, I was still calling on him ‘police, don’t move’.
“I had to shoot or he was going to get me again with the sword. I had no doubt he was going to kill me.”
Operator 52 fired three shots from his rifle.
Mr Chaouk was hit in the chest and abdomen.
He died at the scene.
Robbers stopped in their tracks: Paul Skews and Stephen Crome
Known criminal Paul Skews and novice bandit Stephen Crome walked right into the sights of four SOG members while heading hot into a Hampton Park real estate agency to rob the place in May 1994.
Police had received a tip off about the armed robbery at Finnings Real Estate agency, and had been following Skews in the weeks prior.
Skews, 35, was an “erratic career criminal” who owed $4500 for drugs.
Police also knew that Skews, on bail at the time of the incident, did not want to return to jail and would shoot it out if confronted.
In their request for SOG involvement as part of the arrest operation — codenamed Short Time — Armed robbery squad detectives wrote: “Skews has an extreme propensity for violence. An informer has stated that Skews will not go back to jail and he will shoot it out if confronted by police. Information received and surveillance has confirmed that Skews is a heavy drug user and is irrational in his behaviour.”
In an operational briefing paper, detectives wrote that the aim was “to detect Skews and the other unknown offender prior to them committing an armed robbery and arrest them with a view to charging them with conspiracy to commit armed robbery”.
On the day Skews and Crome decided to strike, SOG members cleared staff from the real estate agency and lay in wait.
They swooped on the two bandits as they arrived to storm the agency.
Skews was carrying a loaded shotgun and three spare cartridges.
Crome, 18, was carrying a bag, but was unarmed.
Skews raised his weapon.
“Knowing the violent background and drug abuse (habits) of both suspects, and in particular Skews’ propensity for violence, I had no doubt in my mind that this offender (Skews) was about to shoot me,” the SOG sergeant later stated.
“When I fired my shotgun. I was aware of other shots being fired by police members ... The firing continued until both offenders fell to the ground.”
State Coroner Graeme Johnstone found the SOG members were justified in shooting Skews and Crome.
Mr Johnstone found Skews and Crome contributed to their own deaths and to each other’s by attempting an armed robbery.
“The shooting by the members of the Victorian Special Operations Group was lawful and justified in that all members fired after being put in reasonable fear that their own lives were at risk by Skews and Crome,” the coroner said.
“The fact that Crome was later discovered not to be armed, does not, of itself, alter the view of the police response at the moment of the shooting.”
Raid turns deadly: Vuthy Tep
A known criminal also known as “Mr T” or “Tiger”, Vuthy Tep pointed a loaded sawn-off .22 rifle at two SOG members when they raided his Doveton home in December 1990.
Tep was in his bedroom when the policemen confronted him.
The night before the arrest raid, Tep, while armed with his rifle, had robbed a man and his two daughters in Noble Park, shot and wounded a man in Clayton South and fired several shots at another victim in Dandenong.
“This series of aggravated burglaries or robberies indicates without any doubt that Vuthy Tep (and a co-offender) were engaged in desperate, violent criminal behaviour without any due regard to human life,” Coroner Nick Papas later said.
During the arrest raid, one SOG member, armed with a pistol, yelled “Police! Don’t move! Police! Don’t move!” as he entered the bedroom.
The other SOG member had a shotgun.
Tep raised his rifle at the policemen, who feared for their lives.
Both SOG members opened fire.
Tep, 29, died of gunshot wounds soon after.
“It is clear that when the police officers entered the room, they were confronted by a man aggressively pointing a weapon at them,” Mr Papas said.
“I am satisfied that both (police members) were justified in shooting the deceased. I am satisfied they did what was necessary to be done in lawful self-defence.
“In a society where desperate and dangerous men resort to the use of firearms and criminal activity, we must expect that a group of highly trained and expert police, who are willing to take enormous personal risks, will occasionally be forced into situations where either they have to shoot or be shot.
“In my view, this was one of those occasions.”
Random shooter taken down: Fotios Diakonidis
It was December 5, 1994 when Fawkner gunman Fotios Diakonidis walked randomly up and down his street shooting indiscriminately.
During his 90-minute spree he killed a male motorist driving past and a woman cowering in her home.
Diakonidis, a depressed invalid pensioner, was armed with an M1-Carbine .30 calibre rifle and a .22 calibre Ruger rifle.
As police moved in, Diakonidis opened fire on them.
He triggered random shots, occasionally stopping to reload.
Police decided against using the skills of a SOG marksman to end the situation, and Diakonidis opened fire on a passing car with a woman and children on board.
“I believed that the offender was firing upon the car and I believed the woman and children were in imminent danger of being killed,” a SOG sergeant later stated.
“The possibility of the offender going to an occupied house was of concern to me.”
The SOG sergeant reacted.
He walked towards Diakonidis to distract him, yelling at the gunman to surrender.
Diakonidis reacted.
“The offender began to bring his weapon up in my direction,” the SOG sergeant would later recall.
“I was in no doubt that he was going to shoot and kill me so I fired.”
The sergeant got in first.
He let five rounds go, killing Diakonidis.
Coroner Jacinta Heffey later cleared police of contributing to Mr Diakonidis’ death.
She found that Diakonidis, 49, solely contributed to his own death and the deaths of his two unfortunate victims.
Dim Sim bandit’s fatal gamble: Norman Lee
IT was early afternoon on a busy Tuesday in July 1992 when bandit Norman Lee — once charged over the infamous Great Bookie Robbery — was to take on his last holdup.
Working with two other men, a fellow gunman and an armed driver, Lee had his sights set on $1 million cash being handed over by Armaguard staff at the Ansett freight terminal at Melbourne Airport.
Lee and his fellow gunman were wearing rubber masks and carrying handguns.
The duo stormed the freight office as their driver waited behind the wheel of the gang’s stolen Ford panel van.
Inside the van, at arm’s reach, were two loaded Armalite self-loading rifles.
As the two gunmen tossed the money bags into the back of the stolen van, and stepped up inside the vehicle, five Special Operations Group members swooped on the Ford.
As the SOG officers moved, the getaway driver sped off, causing Lee and his fellow gunman to spill to the roadway.
Lee chased the van, screaming at the driver to stop.
One SOG officer blasted the Ford’s rear left tyre.
Lee ran towards him, his .357 Magnum revolver raised.
“It appeared to me as though he (Lee) was going to confront the police,” a witness would later say.
The SOG officer stated: “It (the silver handgun) was pointed at me and I called on him (to drop it). It was lowered slightly. He then brought it up again and I fired and he went down.”
A second SOG officer also shot Lee.
“I saw two males (on foot) with masks. Almost simultaneously I noticed ... a big silver gun pointed at us. I fired one shot.”
Lee died where he fell.
A third SOG officer shot and wounded the second gunman.
“I could see that both (bandits) were armed with handguns as they had them pointed at me,” that SOG member said in a statement.
“I was shouting, ‘Police! Don’t move! Drop the gun!’ Although they were both pointing their firearms at me, I was concentrating on (Lee’s accomplice) as I believed (other SOG officers) would secure Lee.”
The getaway driver was arrested.
In her finding, Coroner Jacinta Heffey said in part: “I find that Norman Leung Lee contributed to his own death in placing himself voluntarily in a high perilous situation for his own gain.”
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