Corrective services officer appeared distressed after fatal shooting, court told
A nurse has told a Sydney court that a corrective services officer appeared distressed after he shot a prisoner who was attempting to escape custody outside Lismore Base Hospital in 2019.
The officer, known by the pseudonym Officer A, is on trial for murder in the NSW Supreme Court after he shot 43-year-old Dwayne Johnstone in the back when the shackled prisoner began to flee while being led to a van just after 7.30pm on March 15, 2019.
Dwayne Johnstone (centre), pictured with his family, was shot dead in 2019.
A jury has heard that Officer A let off three shots after shouting at Johnstone to stop. Two of them were aimed towards Johnstone, one fatally hit him in the back. Officer A has pleaded not guilty to Johnstone’s murder.
On Monday, nurse Elissa Rapmund told the court she was being escorted to her car by security at the end of her shift when she heard loud shouting and multiple gunshots from behind her.
She said she walked up the street to see if she could help and saw Officer A with his hand on his forehead, speaking on the phone.
“He was very distressed,” she said. “He appeared upset. I couldn’t say if he was crying or not crying, it was wet and it was raining. But he certainly did appear distressed to me.”
Rapmund said she heard him repeatedly say either “I shot the inmate” or “I shot the prisoner” as he spoke on the phone.
Tracey Barker, a patient experience manager at the northern NSW hospital, told the court she had been waiting outside with a patient when she saw Johnstone, who was wearing handcuffs and shackles, escape at a rapid speed.
“He was almost, like, running, just so quick,” she said. “I couldn’t believe how quick he was.”
She said the officer chasing directly behind Johnstone was not gaining on him, and it appeared the escapee was getting further away.
Barker said two corrective services officers pursued him on foot and she heard one yell “stop or I’ll shoot” multiple times, “loud and clear”, before a gunshot went off.
She said she ran inside when she heard the shot. CCTV vision from the hospital, played to the jury, showed Barker bringing in patients from outside and calling for help. She told the court she yelled to staff that “they’re shooting out there” as she entered the hospital.
“I told everyone to get down,” she told the court, appearing visibly shaken. Officer A’s barrister Philip Strickland, SC, suggested to her that it was “a very frightening event, terrifying, wasn’t it?”
“It was confronting,” she responded.
David Allan, one of the security guards who was escorting the nurse to her car, described Johnstone as fleeing “at speed”.
“He was sort of double shuffling, you could say,” Allan told the court. “He wasn’t taking, like, full strides. It was more of a quick shuffle.”
Allan said he heard a “scuffle” before the first shot, and “thud” after the third.
He said he radioed that he needed police assistance for a critical incident, then went to where Johnstone had collapsed, on a ramp to a doctor’s surgery.
Allan said he helped to take Johnstone across the road to the hospital, where he tried to locate a key to remove his handcuffs and ankle shackles. He said he initially asked police for a key, which did not work, and eventually got a key from a corrective services officer.
The trial continues.
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