- A highly respected police officer was killed when he was allegedly stabbed in the neck while trying to break up feuding neighbours yesterday.
Detective Inspector Bryan Anderson, 45, was fatally attacked moments after he and a colleague arrived at a rural property at Oaksville, near Windsor in NSW, after a call-out about a man firing a bow and arrow over a fence.
Police were called about 2 pm and, as a senior officer, Inspector Anderson arrived a couple of hours later when the situation escalated. He had been at the Scheyville Road property only a few minutes when he was allegedly knifed from behind.
It is understood he had walked over to the fence to speak with the neighbour on the other side, when a 19-year-old man allegedly attacked him.
Inspector Anderson’s colleague’s panicked calls for help, as his superior lay critically injured, were heard across the state police radio network.
Senior police last night said the colleague tried desperately to render assistance but his partner lapsed into cardiac arrest.
Paramedics rushed him by road to Hawkesbury Hopsital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione rushed to the hospital, where Inspector Anderson’s distraught wife and three children had gathered.
Back at the crime scene, a 19-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman, believed to be a mother and her son, were arrested and taken to Windsor police station for questioning.
The Herald Sun can reveal that feuding neighbours had been involved in a long-standing dispute, which featured on “A Current Affair” in August.
One of the neighbours, not under arrest, is well known to police and well known in the tow truck industry. Other residents in the street said the bad blood between the men was well known.
Outside the hospital, Mr Scipione paid tribute to his fallen colleague.
He said NSW had lost a dedicated, brave and skilled officer, who would have gone a long way in the job. “Inspector Anderson worked for me as a young officer. He was a fine officer then, his tenacity his courage his wisdom and his strength stood him in very good stead to go much further than he has,” Mr Scipione said.
Inspector Anderson was heavily involved in an investigation of alleged police inaction following the high-profile case of domestic violence victim Catherine Smith.
Ms Smith was found not guilty of attempting to murder her own husband after revelations she had suffered 20 years of terror at her husband’s hands.
Inspector Anderson appeared on ABC’s “Australian Story” describing Ms Smith as tenacious and probably one of the most singularly determined people that I have ever met.
He also personally delivered a letter of apology to Ms Smith following her acquittal. “It was a step that we could take to try and restore Catherine’s faith in the NSW police,” he told the ABC.
NSW Police Association president Scott Weber said the force had lost a colleague and a leader – Daniela Ongaro & Clementine Cuneo
