7NEWS Spotlight: Ambush
This Sunday, 8.40pm
A slain cop, his furious wife and the ‘cover up’ she claims tried to bury the truth with him
Senior Constable Brett Forte died in a blaze of gunfire and was hailed a ‘hero’ for protecting his police partner against a crazed killer - sacrificing his life to save hers.
Now, in an explosive 7NEWS Spotlight exclusive, to air 8.40pm this Sunday on Channel 7 and 7plus, his partner with him when he died that day, and his grieving wife put their police careers on the line to blow the whistle on a “broken” culture they claim betrayed him and bullied them.
Following a year-long investigation by reporter Denham Hitchcock, Forte’s furious police officer widow, Susan Forte accuses the Queensland Police Service, along with a coronial inquest into her husband’s 2017 shooting death, of trying everything to silence her about the operational errors she alleges could have saved him.
In a bitter twist of fate, Susan who was the domestic violence liaison officer for Bernadette, the former partner of the gunman Ricky Maddison. It was a violent relationship that culminated in Maddison confronting his ex with a handgun on her front doorstep. It took him to the top of the most wanted list.
Toowoomba police were out in force to find him but, by chance, it was Brett Forte and his partner Catherine Nielsen who were hot on his trail during a highway pursuit that led into the bush.
What they didn’t know was Maddison had planned all along to ambush police with a shocking arsenal, including a fully automatic assault rifle, luring their patrol car along a remote dirt road, where they would be caught in a hail of bullets. Fleeing the scene to a nearby stronghold, the violent and paranoid Maddison would be shot dead by tactical police, after a 21-hour siege.
Leaving behind three children, devastated parents and his heartbroken siblings and friends, Forte’s memory deserves better from a force his loved ones say is now intent on burying its mistakes with him.