Australian police officer, father of three, killed in axe attack in Sydney
Members of the New South Wales Police Force in a police car.
An Australian police officer was killed after being hit in the head with an axe at a property near Sydney.
Detective Inspector Bryson Anderson, 45, was attacked from behind while attending a call after neighbors complained of arrows being fired into their yard from a crossbow, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Anderson was among 11 officers called to the property and became separated from the others when he was apparently attacked.
A 19-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman had been taken into custody for questioning, the SMH reported.
According to The Australian Associated Press, paramedics treated Anderson at the scene before he was rushed to Hawkesbury Hospital, where he died.
Sky News, meantime, reported that the officer was well known and very popular in the area.
It cited the top police officer in the state of New South Wales, Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, describing Anderson — a married father of three from a police family — as an "excellent officer and a damn good bloke."
He added:
"There is a family inside that hospital grieving and a wider family across the state of NSW, the police family, that will be crying inside."
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