Ashley Aldridge

It was certainly something that stood out to me as well as I was taking my notes.

I was remembering I highlighted it because, as I mentioned, it was quite specific language.

They heard or felt was the terms that were used, but the council assisting did go on to talk about the gun that Freeman had.

We did learn that that actually was the gun that was taken from one of the police officers, Senior Constable Devart Hotart, back in Pawpunka.

Now, we heard that there was a spent cartridge case, which was consistent with that gun having been fired.

And that was found close to Freeman's body.

We heard that that gun was actually hit in the crossfire with police during that sort of shootout.

Now, the gun, when it was hit, the magazine dropped out and there was one unspent round in that chamber.

Now, the magazine contained 11 unspent rounds of ammunition.

So the 12 rounds with one round fired by Freeman at the SOG members and then the further round fired by him back at Port Punker leaves one round unaccounted for, which we heard yesterday.

And then another magazine with 15 rounds was also recovered at Sologalong that day as well.

Yeah, it was a bit of a strange point in the hearing yesterday.

They mentioned it, but they didn't really provide any further details.

We do know that earlier this year, police conducted what they said was a renewed search for Desi Freeman in the Mount Buffalo National Park.

Now, that all stemmed from reports that a gunshot was actually heard within the park on the day that the police officers were shot in Pawpunka, but it was after the incident.

So it was an isolated incident from the actual shooting in Pawpunka.

Now, in January, police did what they said was firearms testing and they were testing firearms for the acoustics in regards to the reports that they had received in regards to that sort of gunshot.

So we don't know whether that investigation is part of this missing round that they conducted in the national park earlier this year, but perhaps we will find out in the full coronial inquest.

Yeah, I certainly was surprised by that fact.

I assume there is some operational reason for this that may or may not come out in the full coronial inquest, but certainly I was shocked given that we heard previously the number of police in Pawpunka that had body-worn cameras on that day to then hear that none of the special operations groups