The officer from Hawkesbury Local Area Command was “responding to reports of a neighbourhood dispute at a property on Scheyville Road, Oakville, just after 2pm today (Thursday 5 December 2012)”, a police statement read.
“During the course of the operation, the officer sustained serious injuries,” it continued.
It is understood ambulance officers were called to the scene after reports that “a police officer on [the] scene [was] struck in [the] head with an axe”, reports the SMH.
“He was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance Paramedics before being taken to Hawkesbury District Hospital where he later died,” the police statement said.
A 19-year-old man and 42-year-old woman were taken to Windsor Police Station and are assisting investigators with their inquiries.
The Daily Telegraph and Sydney Morning Herald report it was a senior officer, not yet named, who went to investigate a call claiming someone was firing arrows into a neighbours yard.
Tributes have already been made to the fallen officer on Facebook.
Crime scene investigators and forensics experts are examining the location, while a Critical Incident Investigation Team, led by State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad, will investigate the death.
Update: The Sydney police officer killed in an attack has been named as Bryson Anderson, a hugely respected senior cop who died attempting to break-up a dispute between neighbours.
Anderson, 45, died from an alleged would to the neck after arriving at a property in the outer north-western suburb of Oakville, near Windsor.
He was responding to a call about a regarding a man firing a bow and arrow – police arrived at 2pm but Insp Anderson arrived two hours later when the situation was reported to have escalated.
Early reports wrongly claimed he died from an axe wound – now it’s alleged he was stabbed from behind with a knife.
Paramedics took Insp Anderson to Hawkesbury Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione arrived at the hospital shortly afterwards, joining Anderson’s distraught wife and three children.
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