‘Didn’t get your gun’: Cop’s chilling words
Police in the midst of an early morning alleged bus-hijacking claim the man who ended up in custody tried to snatch a police gun, in dramatic vision of the arrest.
The incident unfolded in Adelaide about 6am on Saturday.
A 28-year-old Adelaide man was tasered and capsicum-sprayed twice before police could get him out of the bus driver’s seat.
A male officer ended up with a gouge injury to his eye - which became irritated by the capsicum spray - and a female officer suffered an injury to her jaw after allegedly being punched.
Footage filmed by a member of the public suggests the alleged offender tried to grab a police gun from one of the officer’s hips.
A man has been arrested following an incident at the Adelaide CBD bus depot.
“I didn’t let him get your gun mate I held on,” the injured female officer says in the video as fellow officers try to assess her injuries.
“I grabbed it, I grabbed it, I didn’t let him,” she said.
“I saw,” a male officer said.
The whole time the female officer’s face is bright red and contorted in pain. She asks a paramedic for some sort of spray.
“I just don’t know if my jaw’s broken,” she said.
“He punched me twice in the jaw. Really hard,” she alleged.
Police were called to a Franklin Street bus depot about 5.45am on Saturday to reports an intoxicated man was trying to hijack a private charter bus with 26 elderly passengers on board.
When officers arrived, they alleged the man was in the driver’s seat of the bus in an agitated state.
Police approached the man and asked him to leave the bus but he refused, a police spokesperson said.
Officers tried to remove him from the driver’s seat when two officers were allegedly repeatedly punched to the head, the spokesperson said.
“Police used capsicum spray in an attempt to subdue the man, however it was unsuccessful, and he continued to attempt to drive the bus,” the spokesperson said.
“Officers arrived on scene to assist and a third member was kicked to the head and he suffered a split lip.”
The spokesperson said a police dog was called in to help remove the man from the bus, but he was also allegedly assaulted, and his handler was allegedly punched in the face.
“Police tasered the man but were unsuccessful in releasing the man from the driver’s seat,” the spokesperson said.
“Capsicum spray was used a second time on the man, and he was successfully removed from the bus and arrested.”
Footage shows the man was eventually pinned to the ground by five officers. His clothes somehow came off during the arrest, and he was yelling as police put the handcuffs on.
A 28-year-old Adelaide man has been taken to hospital to receive medical attention before police charge him.
A police spokesperson said he has been charged with four counts of assaulting an emergency worker and illegal use of a motor vehicle.
Two officers were also taken to hospital after one member suffered an eye injury and a second officer suffered a head injury.
One bus passenger needed treatment for the effects of capsicum spray.