{"id":959485,"date":"2026-07-26T01:49:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/959485\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T01:49:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:49:23","slug":"police-accidentally-shoot-cairns-woman-while-firing-at-armed-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/959485\/","title":{"rendered":"Police accidentally shoot Cairns woman while firing at armed man"},"content":{"rendered":"

An innocent bystander has been shot in the leg by police while standing near the front door of her home in suburban Cairns.<\/p>\n

Police said the 50-year-old was accidentally shot when officers fired at a man allegedly armed with knives at a neighbouring property in Mount Sheridan on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Far Northern region assistant commissioner Graeme Paine said the shootings happened during an “extremely dangerous” incident with “very significant threat levels”.<\/p>\n

\"police<\/p>\n

Residential streets have been closed to the public as forensic investigations continue. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)<\/p>\n

“It was a busy residential and traffic area, it appears that one of the bullets that was discharged from the firearm has struck this lady in the lower leg,” Chief Superintendent Paine said.<\/p>\n

“It’s the actions of the person at the time, and the level of threat, which then dictates the response by the officers.”<\/p>\n

Chief Superintendent Paine said it was a very challenging and distressing situation for the family and officers involved.<\/p>\n

\"police<\/p>\n

Chief Superintendent Graeme Paine said the incident was extremely dangerous and police responded to the actions of the alleged offender. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)<\/p>\n

Officers shot the 28-year-old man in the leg and arm after repeated attempts to get him to surrender, police said.<\/p>\n

The man and woman are in a stable condition in Cairns Hospital.<\/p>\n

“It’s an extremely dangerous situation, we are well aware of what can happen with knives in a public place,” Chief Superintendent Paine said.<\/p>\n

‘Incredibly dynamic situation’<\/p>\n

At 5:11pm on Saturday, police received multiple triple-0 reports of a man armed with knives on Benjamina Street following alleged attempts to break into two homes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Authorities were called to an address in Mount Sheridan, a suburb of Cairns, just after 5pm on Saturday. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)<\/p>\n

Police said the man was confronted by occupants during the break-ins and allegedly stole two large knives.<\/p>\n

They said the man was found after a search, which involved the police helicopter, at the intersection of Foster and Hardy roads where he was given “numerous” verbal commands to surrender.<\/p>\n

The Queensland Police Service Ethical Standards Command is reviewing the police response to the incident.<\/p>\n

Investigators are speaking with the three officers \u2014 one sergeant and two constables \u2014 who deployed their firearms.<\/p>\n

\"police<\/p>\n

Police shot the 28-year-old man in the arm and leg after he refused to surrender. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)<\/p>\n

“Things can escalate very quickly \u2026 it is very hard to anticipate a person’s responses to verbal directions or different commands,” Chief Superintendent Paine said.<\/p>\n

“We’re focused now on doing the investigation, getting a really complete picture of what happened and supporting both the officers and police.”<\/p>\n

Multiple crime scenes have been established as forensic investigations continue.<\/p>\n

Police are appealing to anyone with information and relevant footage to come forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An innocent bystander has been shot in the leg by police while standing near the front door of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":959486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50,4797,4798,5236,101],"class_list":["post-959485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-police","tag-shooting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116983772004133870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}