The wife of a police officer who was shot dead by a crazed gunman has hit out at police and claimed they covered up important details surrounding the fatal incident.
As the dust cleared, the cop killer emerged with his automatic rifle
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As the dust cleared, the cop killer emerged with his automatic rifle
“Automatic gunfire. Automatic gunfire. Urgent, automatic gunfire. A police car has rolled. Automatic rifle, we’re getting out of here.”
April 23, 2021
Sergeant Glen Thomas holds a photograph of Senior Constable Brett Forte during the fallen officer’s funeral in Toowoomba on June 7, 2017.
Credit:Chris Hyde
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As the cloud of dust in front of Senior Constable Brett Forte’s four-wheel-drive cleared, it revealed a terrifying sight a wanted violent offender standing beside his ute with an automatic rifle in hand, ready to open fire.
THE HUNT BEGINS RICK Charles Maddison was a local crook who had been annoying police for years. He was known for being aggressive and mouthy. He knew bikies, his name had come up during drug raids and in 2007 he d been heard making a serious threat towards Sen-Sgt Stahlhut (Stahlhut would tell the inquest he did not know about this until 2017). He told people he was going to ambush the senior sergeant and other officers in a driveway. Maddison and a mate would hide behind mulch piles and take them out with an automatic weapon. That same year, the inquest was told Stahlhut wrote an intel report detailing information from a police informant that a man named Rick Matterson had possession of an automatic weapon.