A man has died in custody just days after he allegedly drove his ute at police officers before ploughing into the front of a police station in central western New South Wales.
Donny Hobbs, 67, was arrested on Friday afternoon after his vehicle crashed into the Mudgee police station. Police allege officers were patrolling Market Street in Mudgee when a ute drove at them at about 1.30pm that day. The officers attempted to stop the driver, but he fled before allegedly driving at another officer and then ramming into the police station.
Immediately after the crash, Mr Hobbs was arrested at the scene. He was charged with several offences, including destroying property with intent to endanger life, driving dangerously while leading police in a pursuit, and driving recklessly or furiously. He was refused bail when he appeared in court on Saturday.
Mr Hobbs died in custody just days later. A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman confirmed they were aware of a 67-year-old inmate who died at Bathurst Correctional Centre on Wednesday. “CSNSW and NSW Police are investigating the incident,” the spokeswoman said. “Any death in custody is immediately reported to the NSW Coroner and subject to a compulsory, rigorous public inquiry.”
A police spokesman said last week that no injuries were reported during the Mudgee incident. “Contingencies are being put in place to meet the needs of the local community and Mudgee Police Station remains contactable,” a spokesman said.
About 50 officers had gathered at the station to celebrate the retirement of Detective Senior Constable Scott Wells when the vehicle mounted the curb and began speeding towards the front of the building. Speaking to media on Saturday morning, Orana Mid-West Police District Superintendent Tim Chinn said Senior Constable Wells was “in good spirits” despite the shocking nature of the incident.
“It wasn’t expected... it interrupted the event and caused significant concerns and distress to those involved – not only police, but members of the public,” Superintendent Chinn said. “However, the officer still celebrated his retirement and those proceedings did go ahead in the afternoon. It was a big day, and obviously one that he won’t be forgetting, but he is in good spirits.”
The Superintendent said the building often had large numbers of police going about their work on any given day. “Mudgee has quite a lot of police working from there. There’s general duties, there’s detectives, there could be anywhere from 10-20 police officers,” he said. “For that particular event yesterday being the marching out ceremony ... there would have been up to 50 police officers present at the building at that time. The alleged behaviour posed a huge risk to all the persons present in the building.”
The Superintendent fielded a number of questions from journalists about Mr Hobbs’ links to the sovereign citizen movement, but offered no clarification as to the alleged offender’s motives or personal beliefs.
