Protective services officers shoot and injure man ‘armed with broken glass’ in Melbourne

Key Points

• A 20-year-old man was shot by protective services officers after he confronted authorities with a broken bottle.
• The Pakenham man was detained before being treated by paramedics.
• Officials said there was no danger to public safety.

A 20-year-old man shot on a busy bridge in Melbourne’s CBD had confronted authorities with a broken bottle, police say.

Police and protective officers (PSOs) were attending a separate violent incident near Princes Street Bridge at about 7.30pm on Friday when a man approached them and began making threats, assistant commissioner Dean McWhirter said.

McWhirter, director of Victoria Police’s Transit and Public Safety Command, told journalists on Saturday the officers were concerned about his behaviour and asked him to show his hands.

The officers attempted to use pepper spray on the man, who continued to pursue and threaten one of the PSOs.

“It was at that point in time that another PSO saw what was happening … produced his firearm and shot two shots of the person, one striking him in the abdomen,” McWhirter said.

Two officers drew their weapons, but only one fired the two shots. The second bullet has not been accounted for, but McWhirter maintained there was no danger to public safety.

“In this situation, we had a crime scene that was already established … so there wasn’t an immediate threat to people who were in the immediate vicinity,” he said.

The Pakenham man was detained before being treated by Ambulance Victoria paramedics already at the scene due to the earlier incident. He remains in a stable condition and has not yet been charged.

The shooting will be investigated by Crime Commission investigators.

“Nobody comes to work wanting to have to produce a firearm and actually be confronted by an offender and having to shoot them,” McWhirter said.

In the earlier incident, a man allegedly attacked four people with a glass bottle after a reported botched handbag robbery on a tram.

“He’s subsequently got off the tram, started walking north along St Kilda Road, where he pulled out a bottle and struck a person several times into the face,” McWhirter said.

A witness who chased after the man to identify him as an offender was also glassed.

The 27-year-old South Melbourne man allegedly attacked at least one more person before he was arrested at the scene and charged with four counts of recklessly causing injury.