A teenager on a driving lesson has watched police tackle a man to the ground just a metre from the learner training car she was driving during a major operation in Blackmans Bay this afternoon.
Speaking exclusively to Pulse, the 16-year-old girl – who wished to remain anonymous – was parking at the end of a street in the Kingborough suburb south of Hobart shortly after 3pm on Monday afternoon when the response unfolded around her.
“There was a helicopter … right above us. It was very close to the ground,” she told Pulse.
“And then police officers, they drove down the street and then they all jumped out of their car with big guns.”
She said she could see undercover police cars in the area and the Special Operations Group’s (SOG) heavily armoured Bearcat vehicle.
Her driving instructor told her to keep going with the lesson.
“She was like, ‘Just don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about the noise. Just continue parking’,” she said.
The pair sat in the car for about three minutes watching the scene before deciding to drive off.
As they navigated a tight roundabout nearby, she said a man was tackled to the ground roughly a metre from the driver training vehicle, while her car window was open.
“You [could] hear him screaming, ‘Ow, help, that hurts’,” she said.
She estimated the man sounded like somebody in their late teens or early twenties but said she did not get a good look at him.
She said she did not see whether he was armed because she was focused on driving the car.
“I was just trying to park. I was just, like, trying to reverse park,” she said. “I was scared.”
Tasmania Police confirmed at 3:30pm that a man had been arrested near Blackmans Bay beach and a firearm had been seized.
The arrest followed an alleged shooting on Gourlay Street around 1:30pm this afternoon.
Police say there “is no evidence of any ongoing risk to the public”.
“Anyone with information about the incident or those involved is asked to contact police on 131 444 and quote 251-18052026.”
