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Officer fatally shot at remote border property named

Slain South Australian officer named

The police officer who died after being shot during a violent confrontation in South Australia has been named as 53-year-old Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig.

Doig was shot after he and colleagues Constable Rebekah Cass and Sergeant Michael Hutchinson went to a property in the rural community of Senior near the Victorian border in SA’s south-east late on Thursday to investigate reports a dog had been shot by a man.

They were confronted by an armed man and Doig was shot.

Hutchinson, 59, was also shot and wounded.

Cass, 31, was not physically injured. She rendered assistance to the injured officers and the suspect until other help, including paramedics, arrived.

Doig was the officer in charge of the Lucindale police station, about 100 kilometres from where Thursday night’s shooting occurred. He joined the police force in 1989, and has been in charge at Lucindale for more than 15 years.

Hutchinson and Cass were both from nearby Bordertown.

Hutchinson was flown to Adelaide for treatment. He has non-life-threatening injuries.

senior police shooting

The injured officer and shooting suspect were flown to Adelaide for treatment. Photo: Sunrise screenshot

The armed suspect, a 26-year-old man whose name has not been released, sustained life-threatening injuries and was also flown to Adelaide for treatment. He remained in hospital under police guard on Friday.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens visited Bordertown earlier on Friday, saying it was “an incredibly tragic incident for the South Australian police”.

“I can only imagine what the family of Jason are feeling at this point in time, and I can speak on behalf of the police officers here in the south-east and the remainder of the police within the South Australia police and right across Australia that no one is left untouched by this tragic incident,” Stevens said.

“There wouldn’t be one single police officer today not thinking about the sacrifice that Jason has made.”

Major crime detectives remained at the scene on Friday, with a coronial investigation and a commissioner’s investigation to be held into the incident.

Stevens said police still did not have “a full understanding of all the circumstances” leading up to the fatal shooting. But he described the police visit to the Senior property as “part of the daily routine”.

“There was nothing in the information that we are able to ascertain at this point in time that would have indicated that it was a high-risk incident,” Stevens said.

“We provide the right tools, equipment and training so they can do their job as safely as possible, but you can’t get past the reality that policing often involves dealing with violent offenders.

“The full circumstances will be provided at a later point in time.”

The family of the suspected shooter expressed their condolences to Doig’s family in a statement on Friday.

“We are thinking of them during this difficult time. As a family, our hearts are broken by the incidents that occurred overnight,” it said.

“For now, our thoughts remain with Sergeant Hutchinson and his family while he recovers from his injuries. Our thoughts are also with the south-east community, who will all be affected by this tragedy.”

jason doig

Jason Doig had been a police officer since 1989. Photo: Facebook

Police Association of South Australia president Mark Carroll said “the collective heart of the nation’s police is broken and, right now, it feels broken beyond repair”.

“In policing, we are a family, and we’ve lost a brother so, today, we’re a family in shock, in pain, and in grief,” Carroll said.

“This horror is what all of us in policing live in fear of – it is our dread, that one of us, or one of our workmates, has his or her life taken.

“And for what? For someone to further a crime? To escape justice? To fulfil a misguided hatred?”

He said he “understood the realities of our work” but hoped that “a loss like this will never happen”.

“We are gutted and hurting, as an organisation and as individuals,” Carroll said.

“But now, we have a duty, and that is to Jason’s family and friends, who likely see nothing but the bleakness of loss in their immediate future.

“In whatever way we can help them emerge and carry on, as Jason would have wanted them to, we’ll do it.”

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said he had been briefed about the “terrible news” and would have more to say.

Foreign Minister and SA Senator Penny Wong said her thoughts were with Doig’s loved ones and the police community.

“Every day, police risk their lives to keep us all safe,” she posted on X.

“I’m devastated for the family of a South Australian officer killed while protecting our community.

“We hope for the full recovery of his injured colleague.”

This story is based on an earlier version that first appeared in InDaily

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