Mortgage broker Richard Pusey has allegedly posted photos of the scene of a crash that claimed the lives of four police officers on Facebook and Snapchat and shared them with his friends, Australian media reported. The incident occurred on 22 April on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne. Pusey was pulled over for speeding by two officers and underwent oral fluid testing, which returned positive for drugs.
The officers then decided to confiscate the vehicle, a Porsche 911, and called for back-up, but the two officers that arrived didn’t impound the car, as a truck veered into the emergency lane and killed all four constables. One of them was a 28-year-old Josh Prestney, who graduated from the police academy last November.
According to media reports, the driver of the truck, Mohinder Singh Bajwa, suffered a medical episode. He remains under police guard in hospital. Richard Pusey left the scene on foot following the incident and allegedly took pictures of the crash, which he later posted on his social media.
"When I’m spending time with the family members of those deceased officers, I can tell you it will absolutely disgust them. To leave the scene is a very, very low act in my view", said Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton. "If I wasn’t wearing this uniform as Chief Commissioner, I’d be giving you far more colourful language on that", Ashton said.
Pusey was arrested on Thursday after being on the run for 12 hours. He has an extensive criminal history and was due to face court on theft and criminal charges in the next two months. In 2018, he spent eight months in jail for intentionally causing an injury. He was also filmed verbally abusing the wife of a man he worked with. The woman was suffering from breast cancer.
