Senior Sergeant Perry IrwinPrint Page

The memorial commemorates Senior Sergeant Perry Irwin, officer-in charge of the Caboolture station, who died in August 2003 from gunshot wounds while investigating reports of a gunmen walking in bushland near Tallon Street, Caboolture. The memorial was unveiled on the 5th anniversary of his death. 

The memorial was relocated to the new Caboolture Police Headquarters in May 2019. 

Minister for Police, and the Member for Morayfield, the Honourable Mark Ryan MP, today joined Commissioner Katarina Carroll in officially unveiling the Police Memorial Garden and Monument at Caboolture Police Station.

The new monument complements the existing memorial to Sergeant Perry Irwin who tragically lost his life in 2003, and whose memorial was moved from the previous Caboolture Station to the new station in May 2019.
Excerpt from Qld Government Media Statement, 27 September 2019. 

On the morning of Friday 22 August 2003, Damien Lawrence Coates, 21 years old, was evicted by his father from the family dwelling after an argument. When leaving the house Coates boasted to his father that he intended to 'shoot down planes and shoot coppers'.

Senior Sergeant Irwin and two Constables arrived at the area to investigate the shots. During a search of the vicinity Senior Sergeant Irwin was walking up an incline into a clearing to get signal for his mobile phone when Coates who was partly hidden in a concrete pit ambushed the officer and fired a volley of shots. Although the officer was wearing a bullet proof vest one bullet struck the officer in the neck and another under the arm through the unprotected side of the vest killing him almost instantly. Mr Coates then fatally shot himself.

 

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