Obituaries Australia

A police officer and an armed fugitive were shot dead yesterday when the gunman ambushed a police roadblock near Darwin.

Sergeant Glen Huitson, a 38-year-old father of two from Adelaide River, was killed and a civilian bystander was wounded during the gun battle on the Stuart Highway, 50km south of Darwin.

The shootout ended a 12-hour search for the gunman after shootings at a nearby property at 10.30pm on Monday in which two men were injured.

Police set up roadblocks at 2am and warned nearby residents to stay indoors.

Assistant Commissioner John Daulby said Sergeant Huitson and Constable Jim O'Brien were manning one of a series of roadblocks.

"We were in the process of taking our roadblocks off. They (the policemen) weren't alerted to the fact that this person was in scrub ready to shoot," Assistant Commissioner Daulby said.

As the two officers were talking to a motorist who had stopped to ask directions at about 10.45am, the gunman emerged from bushes armed with a lever-action rifle and a shotgun and began firing wildly.

Although both officers wore bullet-proof vests, Sergeant Huitson, who was due to receive a bravery award for disarming a man threatening tourists earlier this year, died after one bullet found its way through his armor.

The motorist was also wounded before Constable O'Brien shot dead the barefooted gunman, who police said was camouflaged by his light green pullover and dark jeans.

Sergeant Huitson was the officer in charge of Adelaide River and leaves a wife, Lisa, a son Joshua, 2, and a daughter Ruby, six months. The identity of the gunman was not known but police said it appeared he was the same man involved in a shooting incident at a property at Acacia, south of Darwin, on Monday night.

Shots were fired at a house in which a man, woman and young girl were sheltering. A neighbor who tried to block the gunman's path with a truck suffered face injuries when the truck's windscreen shattered.

When the gunman tried to start the truck another man emerged from inside the house and attacked the armed man with a baseball bat, police said.

During the struggle, the gunman's firearm discharged and blew off the man's index finger.