Cop stabbed in the head at CBD park
A NSW police officer is in hospital after he was allegedly stabbed with a 30cm kitchen knife in Sydney’s CBD on Sunday afternoon.
The incident unfolded just after 1.15pm on Park St and Castlereagh St, near Sydney’s Hyde Park.
Police say the 33-year-old alleged offender approached a male and female officer while they were monitoring traffic, demanding police shoot him.
He then allegedly stabbed the male officer in the head “two or three times”, before the offender was chased, tasered and apprehended by police.
The officer was later treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics and taken to St Vincent’s Hospital with non-life threatening head injuries.
The 33-year-old man was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for assessment, where he remains under police guard. As it stands, no charges have been laid.
Sydney City Police Area Command’s Detective Superintendent Martin Fileman told reporters the alleged offender was known to police, however, he had “no real serious criminal history”. The alleged offender also had “no history of mental illness” according to police databases.
“It just shows you the type of training that we go through … We’re faced with a situation that if an officer is injured, that they keep going, and this officer gave chase,” said Superintendent Fileman.
Superintendent Fileman said the stabbing was an “isolated incident” and there was no further threat to the public
Two crime scenes have been established following the stabbing. One at the corner of Castlereagh St and Park St, and a second scene where the man was arrested near Hyde Park.
Road closures were also implemented at both directions at Park St, between Elizabeth St and Pitt St, and southbound closures on Castlereagh St near Market St.
The stabbing comes as NSW Parliament is considering increased wanding powers for police, which would allow officers to use handheld metal detectors to scan people for knives during designated periods.
Modelled after Jack’s Law in Queensland, the powers could be used at public venues, such as train stations, special events, shopping centres, at the discretion of an Assistant Commissioner, or police officer higher in rank.
While the powers are geographically targeted, police could implement the power in the 12 months after a stabbing or a violent crime has occurred, or where police have made more than one charge of knife possession, or the possession of a prohibited weapon.
Superintendent Fileman said the planned powers would help police manage the risk of knives in the community.
“I think (this incident) just shows you the risk that knives pose in the community … any further powers that give us the ability to search for knives is a bonus,” he said.
