Andrew Wilczewski files legal action against state government after Waurn Ponds police shooting

A Waurn Ponds man who was shot by a junior police officer responding to a noise complaint has alleged ‘reckless indifference’.

Waurn Ponds DJ Andrew Wilczewski was shot by police in 2020, how he’s launched legal action against the state government.

A Waurn Ponds man shot by ajunior police officerresponding to a noise complaint has launched legal action against the state government.

Disc jockey Andrew Wilczewski, 50, was in his own backyard when the shooting occurred on August 26, 2020 at his Willesden Drive home.

Police officers Constable Savannah Smith, who was still on her probationary period at the time, and Leading Senior Constable Melinda Wylie, arrived at Mr Wilczewski’s home about midnight.

Police at the scene the day after the shooting. Picture: Alison Wynd

Mr Wilczewski was in a room at the rear of the house, listening to loud music.

When nobody answered the door, Constable Smith jumped a locked fence into the DJ’s backyard, and proceeded to shine her torch “into the windows … and banged on some of the back windows and doors of the home”.

Wilczewski alleges Constable Smith did not identify herself as a police officer, prompting him to walk out into the backyard, holding a shovel after “fearing for his safety”.

Moments later he was shot in the upper thigh and hospitalised.

In a court writ Mr Wilczewski said he was the victim of an unlawful trespass and shooting when he “posed no threat or danger”.

He also alleged the state government’s conduct was “unlawful, humiliating and in contumelious disregard of the plaintiff’s rights”.

Police at the scene the day after the shooting. Picture: Alison Wynd

The writ alleges constables Smith and Wylie acted “negligently and breached their duty of care to the plaintiff”.

Following the shooting, he was charged with seven offences in February 2021, including threatening an emergency worker, assault of an emergency worker, reckless conduct endangering life, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, common law assault, unlawful assault with a weapon and unlawful assault.

Mr Wilczewski was committed to stand trial in the County Court, however the charges against him were dropped last year.

In his suit, Mr Wilczewski also claims Sergeant Daniel Chrystie acted “maliciously and without reasonable or probable cause” when he laid the charges.

Mr Wilczewski said the shooting left him with physical injuries and compromised mobility, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder, distress, hurt, humiliation and disgrace.

“Sergeant Chrystie knew or ought to have known that a person who is the victim of an unlawful trespass has the right to take steps to defend himself and his property,” the writ states.

“Sergeant Chrystie persisted in prosecuting the charges with reckless indifference as to whether there was sufficiently credible or reliable evidence to support a conviction for the offences and knowing that the laying and continued prosecution of the charges would cause injury to the plaintiff.”

Mr Wilczewski claimed Sergeant Chrystie “ought to have known” the brief he signed was “inconsistent with the evidence and misleading”.

Court documents claim allegations in the police brief were “positively disproved” by body camera footage of the incident.
These included officers knocking at the front door prior for 12 minutes, which footage showed was actually four minutes according to the writ, that Constable Wylie “continued to announce the presence of the police” at the front of the house after her partner had entered the backyard, and that Constable Smith announced she was a police officer while knocking on windows at the rear.

The latter was also not supported by Constable Smith’s own witness statement, the writ alleges.

In the writ, Mr Wilczewski says the lawsuit should act “as a deterrent and a spur to the Defendant to ensure that police officers are properly trained and understand their heavy responsibilities”.

Originally published as Andrew Wilczewski files legal action against state government after Waurn Ponds police shooting