Footage shows the frightening moment a man spontaneously set upon two policemen as they walked a busy late-night party strip.
The officer was assaulted on Adelaide’s busy Hindley Street about 12.45am on Sunday by a man who threw a mobile phone at him before reaching for the officer’s service pistol.
CCTV vision from the street shows the man tramping towards the officer after and viciously swinging his fist at the cop.
After a brief tussle the two officers then appeared to have the man under control, sandwiched between them.
But with nearby onlookers just metres away, the man then reached for the officer’s holster and tried to take out his gun, which could have ended in catastrophe.
South Australian Police said one of the officers was injured in the melee and ‘suffered a cut to his head’.
‘Capsicum spray was used to arrest the man,’ an SA Police spokesperson said.
Two officers battled to control a man who threw his phone at one of them and followed-up with punches
The officers worked to take the man to the ground, but in the process the man tried to snatch a police weapon from its holster
The police union said the two officers involved in the attack were not meant to be on shift on Sunday night, but had offered their help amid a critical shortage of available officers.
Wade Burns of the SA Police Association told 7News the two officers stopped what could have been a tragedy.
‘It’s only due to the excellent work of our police members that they prevented what could have been an absolute disaster,’ Mr Burns said.
‘They were working in the CBD to supplement the understaffed policing model that exists within Hindley Street and the greater CBD area.’
A 25-year-old Blakeview man was arrested and charged with assaulting a prescribed emergency worker and throw missile.
The man was bailed to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on December 20.
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