Shot in the face and shoulder by a semi-automatic .22 calibre rifle from a metre away, Daryl had just encountered every police officer’s worst nightmare.

Doubled over by the impact, and suffering critical injuries and blood loss, he somehow managed in the chaos to draw his service revolver, exit the vehicle and start searching for the gunman.

Three weeks later, after a massive manhunt, Nigel Parodi, a former private schoolboy known to police, was found dead in bushland near the Chermside crime scene. He had taken his own life