WAGGA SENIOR Constable Matt Shaw’s life flashed before his eyes as he dodged left and right to avoid the barrage of bullets flying past him.
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His first thought was for his wife, also an officer, who was forced to listen to his desperate radio communications as she helplessly sat in Wagga’s police station.
The heavily armed fugitives who tried to take his life, Gino and Mark Stocco, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to murder in Dubbo Local Court.
But in a cruel twist of the knife, the crown officially dropped all charges against the duo for attempting to kill police.
And now the man fired upon by the father-son runaways has broken his silence.
Senior Constable Shaw, a highway patrol veteran of 25 years, had just finished eating lunch on an ordinary day in October 2015 when he received an alarming call from Albury Local Area Command.
Mark and Gino Stocco were heading straight towards Wagga.
“I had to rush straight out to the highway and I was under the guise that I’d need to lay road spikes,” Senior Constable Shaw told The Daily Advertiser.
When he found out the Stoccos had fired upon a highway patrol car, he prepared himself for a life-threatening encounter.
“Their vehicle turned off Holbrook road and as I began following, it stopped in the middle of the road so I pulled up around 200 metres behind,” he said.
“Then a first gun-shot rang.
“It was surreal, I’d never been fired upon, and to have the bullets ring in my ears and fly past me made me realise it wasn’t worth losing my life.”
Senior Constable Shaw, in what he described as “either instinct or adrenaline”, ducked and weaved as the Stocco duo reigned bullets in his direction.
The highway patrol officer made a narrow escape as back-up arrived to pursue the fugitives.
"My wife was supervising the general duties, so I can't really imagine how hard it would've been for her sitting in the station, listening to me calling in exactly what was happening," he said.
“Being in the police force, you always wonder whether today could be the day you go out and something like this happens.
“You just hope that you’re lucky enough to return safe and sound.”
The brave highway patrolman also admitted to The Daily Advertiser he has undertaken counselling and had close support from NSW Police.
“It’s really a matter of dealing with it and getting help because nobody is above this,” he said. “I still deal with it, it’s something I confront everyday and something that is on every officer’s mind.”
The Stocco pair will be sentenced on charges of murder in August.
