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A former high-flying New Zealand businessman was fatally shot by police on Queensland's Gold Coast on Saturday night.
Alan Kent Dyer, 49, who suffered from depression, reportedly charged at police with a knife after trying to burn down his Pacific Pines home near Broadwater.
His partner, named only
as Chantal, told the Gold Coast Bulletin she believed Mr Dyer ran at the police officers with a knife because he wanted them to shoot him.
Mr Dyer was a high-flying, intelligent, businessman linked to a successful vitamin company until he lost everything about six years ago, she said.
He was not a monster but a broken man who had lost his battle with depression and the will to live.
Mr Dyer arrived at their Elkins Street home at their Pacific Pines in an agitated state on Saturday evening after an earlier argument, Chantal said.
He then tried to burn down the house he shared with her, her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend.
The trio fled the house when Mr Dyer pulled an antique knife, with a 30cm blade, out of a cupboard, she said.
They called police, and took shelter at a neighbour's home while Mr Dyer locked himself inside the house.
Other witnesses described to the Bulletin how when two police officers went to the front door of the home, it flew open and Mr Dyer ran out, screaming "I'll f-ing kill you".
They said he lunged at a senior constable, who tripped over a "For Sale" sign in the home's front garden and fell to the ground.
His partner went to his aid and Mr Dyer then turned on that policeman, backing him into a tree.
The constable grabbed his gun and fired and Mr Dyer fell to the ground.
A woman neighbour, who watched the shooting from her front porch, told the Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper three people ran from Mr Dyer's house screaming that someone was trying to kill them.
Mr Dyer emerged from the property carrying a long-bladed knife. One of the women who ran from the house called out to police "don't shoot him" but he was shot almost immediately, the neighbour said.
Mr Dyer was shot in the abdomen and pronounced dead in hospital at 7:07pm.
Chantal said she was struggling to believe what had happened.
"I wish I could bring him back," she said through sobs as she sat in the lounge of her home, which was marked with burnt carpet and broken glass.
"No one's given him a chance. I tried to help him: he wasn't well."
Yesterday, a police spokesman said the police actions, were "justified and unavoidable".
"I believe the officers involved acted appropriately and in defence of their lives," Queensland Police Union president Cameron Pope said.
There would be questions arising out of the matter regarding the mental health system, he said.
Terry O'Gorman, from Queensland's Council of Civil Liberties, said the Government needed to look at the introduction of 24-hour mental health teams to accompany police to jobs involving people with mental illnesses.
"We accept that Tasers have a role in this sort of situation because it prevents someone from being killed."
It was reported to be the fifth fatal police shooting involving a mentally ill person in the southeastern Queensland police region since October 2003.
- NZPA