The police officer shot in Centennial Park today was bashed and stabbed outside his Randwick house three months ago, police say.
The victim, 48-year-old Senior Constable Ashley Don, is undergoing surgery at St Vincent's Hospital after being shot by a gunman with a rat-tail hair style, having only just recovered after being attacked outside his house on November 8.
The Maroubra constable, a husband and father of two teenage boys, was stabbed several times in the stomach and hit in the head with a brick last year.
Two men have reportedly been arrested in connection with today's shooting, although police are refusing to confirm whether the officer was shot with a rifle, as earlier reported.
Central Metropolitan Regional Commander Catherine Burns said police from the eastern beaches command were called to Dickens Drive at 7.55am.
"When officers arrived, they found the off-duty police officer suffering from a wound," she said.
"A critical incident investigation team, including police rescue squad and local detectives, has been formed to investigate the shooting.''
Ms Burns confirmed the officer had been involved in an earlier incident in Randwick.
"This officer has been involved in a previous incident and investigations into that incident are continuing. We haven't spoken to him. When we do we will confirm [why he was at the park].''
The park has been closed and about 20 park staff have been sent home as the police try to clear everyone out.
And congestion in the area has been made worse by a crash on Anzac Parade, with traffic backed up in both directions after a car crash knocked down a power pole, throwing a power line across the road.
A witness later told Fairfax radio that police had surrounded a silver Commodore on North Bexley Road at Bexley, in Sydney's south-west.
He said the car had no number plates.
Macquarie Radio reported that two men had been arrested, but a police spokeswoman could not confirm that.
Unconfirmed reports said the officer was shot by a rifle-carrying man near a toilet block beside duck ponds at the Bondi Junction end of the park.
"He had sustained an injury to his lower abdomen," a police spokesman said.
"It was reported to police that a late model silver sedan bearing no rear plates may have been involved in the incident."
Ambulance crews were called and the shooting victim was taken to St Vincents Hospital in a stable condition.
Dozens of officers, both uniformed and detectives are scouring the park as a police helicopter patrolled overhead.
Some police were interviewing scores of potential witnesses, including joggers, dog-walkers and cyclists.
A large yellow tent was set up at the lakeside crime scene. Officers in white coveralls were searching the area as light rain fell.
One witness, who wanted be indentifed only as "Jerry", said he saw a large number of police arriving at the spot before 8am, after the shooting.
"They looked frantic, they were running over to the toilet block," he said.
"But they didn't find anything there. They quickly went to the other side of the pond."
- with Paul Bibby and AAP
Topic: Officer down: first stabbed, now shot (Read 637 times)