Masi Ayiik: Freed immigration detainee to seek bail after he was shot by police officer in Doveton

A former immigration detainee shot by police at the weekend has laughed in court and expressed frustration after his case faced prolonged delays.

A former immigration detainee shot by police in Melbourne at the weekend will seek to be released back into the community, a court has been told.

Masi Ayiik, 33, was rushed to hospital on Saturday morning after allegedly charging at officers called to an address on Paperback St in Doveton.

According to Victoria Police, officers were called to the address for a welfare check and were allegedly confronted by a large, aggressive male armed with a metal pole.

He was shot and rushed to Dandenong Hospital with minor upper-body injuries. He was arrested following his discharge.

Masi Ayiik was captured on video having water poured on his face. picture Supplied

Mr Ayiik appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday on charges of resisting police, assaulting police and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
Wearing a blue check shirt, he sat in the dock with no visible injuries but was seen pointing to his left armpit and stretching.

The court was told Mr Ayiik was on five counts of bail at the time of his arrest and would be applying for bail again, while prosecutors were asking for bail to be revoked.

Mr Ayiik’s lawyer, Daniel McGlone, flagged the case was “contentious”, noting his client’s status as a freed immigration detainee, that he was shot by police and Victoria’s new bail laws.

But Mr Ayiik’s bail application was pushed back until Tuesday after delays landed the case before magistrate Michelle Hodgson at 3.45pm.

“Even if I sat to 5pm I’m told the matter wouldn’t finalise,” she said.

“You will be remanded in custody overnight to have your application heard tomorrow.”

Mr Ayiik responded by laughing and asking “are you sure?”.

“I just changed court rooms before for what?” he questioned.

The shooting occurred on Paperback St in Doveton. Picture: Tony Gough

Mr McGlone asked the court to note that his client sustained injures including a “gun shot wound” and OC spray exposure during his arrest.

On Saturday, Superintendent Wayne Viney told media that police were attempting to arrest Mr Ayiik when he allegedly broke free and grabbed an A-frame metal pole.

“This male was quite a large male, double that with a large metal pole chasing police members down the street,” he alleged.

“One of the (police) members, fearing for the life and safety of the other police members, shot that male who received a non-fatal wound to the upper body.

“The police member who did fire his weapon, as you can imagine, is very distressed and quite upset.”

Mr Ayiik was released in the wake of a landmark NZYQ ruling in the High Court that found Australia’s indefinite immigration detention scheme was unlawful.

Brought by one man, known in the proceedings as NZYQ, the ruling released hundreds of stateless people, and those who cannot be deported to the country of birth, into the community.

Police remained at the scene on Saturday. Picture: Tony Gough

In response, the government passed new laws to impose surveillance conditions and allow members of the cohort to be detained and deported if another country would accept them.

Liberal home affairs spokesman James Paterson has used the incident to accuse the Albanese government of failing to keep Australians safe following the cohort’s release.

He said despite the new laws the government had not applied for a single preventive detention order.

“He’s just one of the 300 people that Anthony Albanese released into the community following that High Court decision,” Senator Paterson told 2GB’s Ben Fordham Live program.

“And of those 300, 100 of them have gone on to commit another offence since they were released by the Labor party into the community … They should have been deported or, at the very least, locked up.”

Last week, Department of Home Affairs immigration compliance manager Michael Thomas told senate estimates there were 30 members of the cohort in custody at the end of February.

Responding to questions by Senator Paterson, Mr Thomas shared details of the group’s alleged criminal history, including claims that 13 were killers, 95 had committed sex offences, 133 had been sentenced for violent offending and seven were people smugglers.

About 100 full-time Department of Home Affairs employees at the were dedicated to the NZYQ cohort in this year’s budget, he told senate estimates.

Police have urged anyone who witnessed the incident or had dashcam/CCTV footage to contact Crime Stoppers.

Originally published as Masi Ayiik: Freed immigration detainee to seek bail after he was shot by police officer in Doveton