Fuelled up on speed and tall tales from his girlfriend Cherie Ann Hewson, Ansell was convinced members of the Freemasons had kidnapped his sons — Callum, then aged 20, and Shawn, 18.

Ms Hewson, had told him that as a child she had witnessed the sacrifice of young girls that her family — members of the secret medieval fraternity — “brought out of the woods’’.

They were bound, raped and slaughtered, she said.

‘The memory of Glen is always with me … it is the worst moment of my career’

The shared paranoia came to a head when Ms Hewson claimed she spotted three bow hunters, dressed in camouflage with night vision goggles, near their bush camp.

NT Coroner Dick Wallace would later say the “wretched drivel’’ was at the root of Ansell’s madness.

The couple visited mates Steven Robinson and his partner, Lee-Anne Musgrave, on a property at Noonamah, about 50km south of Darwin where Ansell fired six shots at their caravan on Kentish Rd.

Nearby resident David Hobden jumped in his truck, armed with his double-barrel shotgun, and went to investigate.

In response Ansell put a bullet through the windscreen of Mr Hobden’s truck. He lost an eye.

Mr Hobden ran to alert his neighbour, Brian Williams, who “waxed wrath’’ at the state of his mate’s face and grabbed a baseball bat.

He charged at Ansell, who was trying to steal Mr Hobden’s truck.

“He was going on about stealing his children, and Freemasons, and being a baby killer … oh, just, he was mad, mate,” Mr Williams said to police.

Ansell fired shots at the Williams’ house.

Then he ran away, his rifle in one hand and Mr Hobden’s shotgun in the other into the bush.

THE Territory Response Group was called in about 11pm. They set up a command post with two troop carriers, with six cops in each.

They manned the north roadblock and the Adelaide River Police — a station of a handful of cops, station boss Sgt Huitson and his second-in-charge, then Constable Jamie O’Brien (now Commander O’Brien), manned the southern roadblock at the corner of Old Bynoe Rd — with a pistol each, a 12-gauge shotgun and standard police issue .308 rifle.

The duo were tired after attending a motorcycle crash the night before about 20km south of Adelaide River. But that was the life of a remote cop.

“We were about 20kms south of Adelaide River on our way back when we started to hear chatter on the police radio that a gunman had gone on a shooting spree and police were responding,” he said.

‘We listened to that for a while and when we got back to the station we had a chat and agreed it was pretty likely we would get called into it.

“Shortly after that we were called out to go north and set a roadblock up at Old Bynoe Road and Stuart Hwy.

“We left just before midnight on August 2 and when we arrived we did what we were told to do and started stopping cars at night … there was a lot of trucks so we had quite a fair bit of traffic starting to bank up.

“The worry was what to do with all the people and a gunman on the loose. We weren’t too sure at that stage how close we were to the incident.”

WHILE the duo had spent a long night stopping cars and checking them, Ansell snuck up to the roadblock through the bush.

At 10.30am Ansell fired his first shot, hitting a removals worker by the name of Jonathan Anthonysz, who was leaning on the cop car, chatting with the officers.

The bullet blew a hole “the size of a baseball’’ in his pelvis.

He flew to the ground and Sgt Huitson covered Mr Anthonysz’s colleague — David Hobden’s brother, Anthony — dragging him out of view.

Cmdr O’Brien said they had to act quickly to figure out where Ansell was in the bush and also call for backup.

“I had to speak to him fairly quickly to find out where had been hit so I could get an idea in what direction the shot had come from based on how and where he was standing when hit,” he said.

“That led me to the area directly behind him, over the bonnet and into the bushland where I saw Ansell moving quickly towards our position carrying a rifle.

Ansell then ducked down behind some earth and mounds and appeared to be getting ready to fire again at the four men.

“At that point I made the decision I was going to have to return fire, which I did,” Cmdr O’Brien said.

“I got off four or five shots in the direction of the offender with the intent of keeping his head down so that we could have time to get sorted.

“By that stage I yelled to Glen to get the shotgun in the front seat which he did. He fired through the front window of the police car.

It was then that Ansell fired again. The shot proved to be fatal hitting Sgt Huitson through the side of his vest.

“We later found out that the bullet had deflected off the door of the police car in such a way that it came back down hitting him in the side,” he said. “He was immediately incapacitated by that and on the ground.”

IT was up to Cmdr O’Brien to ensure Ansell was not able to shoot anyone else.

“Pretty much from there the next four or so minutes became a survival situation with quite a bit to deal with _ a severely injured civilian in the open laying on the highway, there was a police officer who was incapacitated and another civilian in a highly distressed situation and a committed and well training person who was obviously committed to his cause of firing shots at us,” he said.

“And then there was also the concern of civilian vehicles driving towards the situation and signalling them away while all the time trying to maintain what was happening from the bush opposite.

“We couldn’t retreat to the gully on the western side of the highway and carry two people at the same time.

“We would have been too exposed so the only way then to help the two injured was to try and resolve the situation.

“I had to engage in a fire fight with the individual until the matter was resolved.

“This meant fire off a number of rounds, re loading, counting how much ammunition I had at my disposal and just trying to stop the offender from getting into a position where he could fire accurately.

“I was starting to think we would run out of ammunition before help could arrive.”

CMDR O’Brien could see the Territory Response Group in the distance barrelling towards them. His aim was to keep Ansell pinned down until more help could arrive.

When the TRG arrived, Ansell turned his attention towards them and stood up to get a better shot. It was then that Cmdr O’Brien also had a clear shot at Ansell.

“That was the point that I knew I had to bring about a final resolution to the situation. That was done with a couple of rounds from the shotgun I had,” he said.

“He dropped and then I signalled the TRG to where he was and they took charge.

“I returned to the police car and rendered assistance to Glen and the civilian until we could get them out of there as quickly as we could.”

Ansell died about 10.50am at the scene. Brevet Sergeant Huitson died about 11.30am at the Accident and Emergency Department of the Royal Darwin Hospital.

NT Police Association president Paul McCue says remembering Sgt Huitson each year with a memorial is a way to highlight the sacrifice he made that day.

“No one, most importantly his family, knew he would not come home that day. That is the dangers our police face for us all each and every shift,” he said.

“We know NT Police Legacy do an incredible job supporting the families of fallen officers and, like them, we want to make sure that families who are impacted by the loss of life of one of our officers will always feel supported and never feel alone.”

Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said Sgt Huitson’s death was a reminder of the dangers cops face while doing their job.

“We know NT Police Legacy do an incredible job supporting the families of fallen officers and, like them, we want to make sure that families who are impacted by the loss of life of one of our officers will always feel supported and never feel alone,” he said.

CMDR O’Brien often thinks about August 3, 1999. He often thinks about his mate and colleague who was taken too soon.

He thinks about where his mate would be now and reckons he’d still be out on the road policing the remote communities he cared so much for.

“It still stands as the worst moment of my career. You see a lot as police officers in the Northern Territory. We attend a lot of serious incidents, but that will always be at the top of the pile of what I have dealt with.

“(Glen) was 11 years older than me with vastly more experience and I learned a great deal about bush policing off him. If you look at who he was, he was one of the most genuine people I have ever met.

“He wasn’t in a hurry in his career and he took the time to spend time in communities, really absorbing the sense of community and becoming part of it.

“To see the way that a bush police officer like Glen could communicate and become embedded in it and the positive influence they can have was instrumental in driving me to want to go and do remote policing.

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“I think about Glen, you wonder what would have been, where he would have been these days working. He was dedicated to communities. He had such a passion for the Territory and in particular the regional and remote parts.

“I imagine he would have still had the attraction and passion. I don’t think he would have been working in an office.”

No NT Police men or women have been killed in the line of duty since Brevet Sergeant Glen Huitson.

With additional reporting from Ellie Turner