Brisbane siege: Waiting game after shot fired
Two men who fired on police before barricading themselves inside an inner-Brisbane unit were wanted for break-and-enters.
Two men who fired on police before barricading themselves inside an inner-Brisbane unit for almost six hours yesterday were wanted for break-and-enters in which shotguns were stolen.
City streets were locked down during the tense standoff, with heavily armed specialist police officers surrounding the unit block and a police bomb squad robot patrolling cleared thoroughfares that would typically be clogged with traffic.
The siege began just after 11am, when a shot was fired at Special Emergency Response Team officers who were raiding the Chasely Apartment Hotel unit with detectives investigating property offences.
It ended at 4.39pm when the men gave up their bolthole, at the corner of Coronation Drive and Chasely Street in Auchenflower. Police found several firearms in the unit.
Detectives had tracked the men for days, with SERT called in to assist in the raid because it was considered high risk due to the men involved and the theft of shotguns during residential break-and-enters.
After the shot was fired, police declared an emergency situation and sealed off riverside Coronation Drive and surrounding streets.
Ferry services to Auchenflower were suspended and a bikeway closed. A drone was seen hovering over the unit block.
“When our SERT officers were gaining entry to the unit, a shot was fired and the two male offenders barricaded themselves inside a unit,” Inspector Tony Ridge said.
Locals were asked “to be patient while we work to resolve this situation as peacefully as we can”.
Nearby residents were “quite safe” during the siege, with the offenders contained to their unit. Some residents had been moved to safer areas, but the entire building had not been evacuated.
Patients, their families and staff could not move to or from the Wesley Hospital, on Chasely Street.
“There’s been some inconvenience there with people trying to get to and from the hospital,” Inspector Ridge said.
“That’s impacted staff as well as the family of patients.
“I apologise because of that inconvenience but really it’s unavoidable at this stage.”
He added: “We’ll negotiate as we can to resolve this situation.”
Matthew Parry said trapped residents of the unit block looked “very scared” when he arrived at the building for scheduled roofing work in the morning.
“Must have happened just moments before we pulled in, they had the place surrounded with men approximately 50m in each direction,” he told the ABC.
The armed men were believed to have rented the apartment on a short-term basis overnight.
Upper Mount Gravatt CIB detectives had been investigating property offences from Brisbane’s south side.
Specially trained negotiators helped end the siege. No one was injured, police said.
The men, 33 and 29, were also wanted on return-to-prison warrants. They will appear in court today.
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