On this day
Senior Constable
David Thomas Hill BARR
YEAR OF DEATH
26 July 1990
JURISDICTION
South Australia
DETAILS OF DEATH
David Barr died in the Lyell McEwin Hospital after a knife-wielding attacker stabbed him in the chest at the Salisbury Interchange on Gawler St Salisbury. He had responded with his partner Jamie Lewcock to a report of a man threatening a woman. After the two officers arrived at the interchange and attempted to arrest him he plunged his knife deep into the heart of the husband and father of two. Barr was rushed to hospital where doctors tried desperately to save him. At the same time the local police inspector collected Barr’s now late wife Gwenda from her home and drove her straight to the hospital. She waited for news of her husband in a victim room with two police officers. A hospital co-ordinator kept her informed of his progress. Finally however came the devastating news that her husband of nine years had suffered massive blood loss and died. Gwenda Barr never spoke to the media but told the Police Journal eight years later (in Survived by a woman of courage June 1998) how crushed she had felt. “I was shocked stunned and numb” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it either. It was terrifying.” Barr’s daughters Nicola and Sarah were then eight and six. The murderer convicted of his crime was sentenced to life imprisonment. Barr who had served as a police officer for 15 years and Lewcock were for their actions awarded the Australian Bravery Medal.
