Resident Karina Schiller said she arrived at the Kmart store on Albert Street to do some shopping just after the shooting. She said she noticed two police cars at the intersection.
“Initially I just thought maybe it’s a drunk and disorderly person, so I kept walking to Kmart,” she said. “And then just six more cop cars came, and by the time I left there were probably 15 cars.”
Police officers at the scene in Footscray on Thursday night.Credit: Pradeep Tiwari
Schiller said she spoke to a distressed teenage girl who witnessed the shooting.
“It happened right in front of her, she said he was charging at [police] and the cops shot a couple of times,” she said.
The incident is now under investigation by homicide squad detectives, with oversight from Victoria Police’s internal affairs unit, the Professional Standards Command.
The command is also investigating two other police shootings in the past month, neither of them fatal.
Officers shot a man who charged at them with a metal pole in the south-eastern suburb of Doveton on March 29.
On April 4, an officer shot a woman through the window of the car she was in, in Mulgrave, after she allegedly pointed a gun at the man driving the car following a police pursuit.
The fatal shooting comes one week after police made Footscray a major focus, by proactively patrolling the suburb’s CBD with the dog squad and talking to business owners.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or with further information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
More to come
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