Chilling evidence of Damian Leeding's death
FIRST ON 7: For the first time, chilling security pictures of the armed robbery Senior Constable Damian Leeding was responding to when he was killed, have been shown.
Armed robbers Phillip Abell and Donna McAvoy, were yesterday found guilty of murder, and 7News was given exclusive access to video interviews with the gunman, and the detective's police partner.
Damian Leeding couldn't protect himself as he tried to protect the community. His last moments were spent running in front of his police partner, responding to an armed robbery.
Then, a flash. The detective had been shot by
Phillip Abell and Donna McAvoy had stormed the Pacific Pines Tavern ordering terrified patrons and staff to obey their orders.
Abell pointed a fully loaded shotgun at them, while McAvoy tied them up and demanded money. One person managed to escape and call triple zero.
"Yeah, look I think the Pacific Pines Tavern is being held up. I just heard men go in there and say get down, get down, get down,” the caller said at the time.
Leeding was with his police partner Nicole Jackson when he was gunned down. In the video, she described what happened when they arrived and saw the masked offenders.
"Damian's jumped the fence, I've gone down there. I didn't think the fence went the whole way, she said.
“I heard ‘stop, police[, or ‘police, police’. When I looked the offender was looking directly at me.”
“I've come up, I've come back and I saw Damian on the ground. I yelled ‘Damian!’, but he didn't answer and I went back to the car and said ‘urgent, urgent, shots fired’.”
- -
Convicted killer, Donna McAvoy was also taken back to the tavern, where she walked detectives through the robbery, step by detailed step.
"I looked and I seen the feet and I and I seen the uniform,” she said of the moment she saw Detective Leeding’s body.
She showed police the path they escaped then investigating officers delivered news of Leeding’s death.
Abell pulled the trigger but didn't want to answer questions.
A covert officer was placed in McAvoy's holding cell. In an interview after she was arrested she denied knowing Abell had a gun.
"I didn't even know it was a firearm, I thought it was a piece of wood until it went off,”
Some of the videos were shown to the jury, others have never been seen, hours and hours of compelling, powerful evidence.
Despite being caught on security cameras, Abell told officers they had the wrong guy, when he was found and bitten by a police dog in nearby bushland.
“It's the first time I've seen someone have a dog on their arm and not scream,” a police officer said.
More than $16,000 was later found in a bag dumped in the car park.
Abell and McEvoy will be sentenced on Friday.
