Police under investigation after shooting man dead on NSW Central Coast

A man has been shot dead by police after allegedly threatening officers with an axe on the NSW Central Coast last night.

An axe-wielding man has died after being shot during a confrontation with police on the NSW Central Coast.

Police were called to reports of a dispute between neighbours at a house on The Entrance Rd at Erina about 10.20pm on Friday.

Flames could be seen coming from the side of the house and two officers forced open the front door, police said.

Police interviewing a woman at the scene this morning. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“We have never seen so much police presence in our lives, so knew something bad must have happened,” a neighbour told The Daily Telegraph.

As police approached the home, a man allegedly holding a fire torch shouted: “I’m going to kill them all” according to the Telegraph, before threatening police with an axe after they broke through the front door.

The police opened fire and the 45-year-old man died at the scene despite paramedics’ efforts to treat him.

Police at the scene where a man died after being shot by police during a domestic disturbance last night. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Police said a team from the homicide squad will investigate, and the coroner will determine the man’s cause of death and examine the circumstances leading up to it.

Neighbours told the Telegraph police had been to the home dozens of times over disturbances and noise complaints.

Officers have been combing the scene and interviewing neighbours this morning. Picture: Tim Hunter.

A woman who arrived at the scene this morning said she knew the man, that he had mental health issues, and “he had slipped through the cracks”.

The ABC has identified the victim as Jason Pearce.

Speaking to media outside Newcastle Police Station this afternoon, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Max Mitchell said the man was known to police as a “suspected drug addict with potential mental health issues”.

Mr Mitchell said three shots were fired during the altercation, two of them hitting the man.

“It would appear the attending police had no other opportunity other than to take the action that they did,” he said, before adding that the investigation will consider whether police could have tasered the man instead.

The two police involved in the shooting were described as “senior highway patrol officers” with the rank of sergeant and senior constable.

Mr Mitchell said the sergeant fired the three shots.

It’s believed the man had been attempting to burn down a neighbour’s house, though the flames were coming from his own property.

Mr Mitchell said the situation would have been made particularly difficult for police, who thought they were approaching the home to potentially rescue occupants trapped inside, only to be confronted by an armed man.

“It is a difficult situation, being confronted by a male with an axe, I can only imagine what was going through the minds of those officers,” he said.

The latest incident comes a month after NSW police shot dead gunman Daniel King, 32, after a rampage in Sydney’s west.

The bodybuilder, armed with a 12 gauge pump action shotgun, fired shots into a home at Marayong, before firing into the front of St Marys police station around half an hour later.

King was killed after firing at officers outside Penrith police station around twenty minutes later.

– With AAP