Last week this newspaper published a story on a memorial service that took place in Airlie Beach to mark what would have been Luke Gilbert’s 25th birthday.
Luke sadly passed away during a police shooting in October last year.
Since then, his devastated family have been campaigning for an independent inquiry into the incident which they believe to be the result of excessive police force.
Last week this paper stated that the inquiry was already going ahead, but this was inaccurate.
There is an inquest due to take place in August which the family hope will pave the way for an independent inquiry.
In last week’s article, this newspaper incorrectly stated that Luke drew a 4cm penknife from his pocket.
Please note, that the knife allegedly had a 7cm blade and he unclipped it from his belt when the police asked him what he had.
The family assert that he did not threaten police with the knife and that they were allegedly backing away when he was shot.
They also state that no CCTV footage has been released, it was phone recordings that documented the event.
This newspaper was told by one of the people attending the memorial that they had seen the CCTV footage, but that information was inaccurate.
The newspaper article also stated that the family acknowledge that Luke’s behaviour in saying “shoot me then, faggots” was ‘disgraceful’.
They did not say this.
“As a family we have never said Luke’s behaviour was disgraceful,” said mum, Nicola Gilbert.
“We do not agree that it was. He was highly intoxicated and it’s fair to say he should not have taken the knife off his belt but we do not believe that doing so warrants being killed.”
