James Leslie

DETAILS OF DEATH

Senior Constable James Leslie Dunscombe (23016) joined Victoria Police on 29 June 1981 and had a successful 23 year police career, ultimately being stationed at the Corio Police Station in the Geelong area. On 11 December 2004, Senior Constable Dunscombe and Senior Constable Graham Cawdwell (30727) were rostered to perform divisional van duties at the Corio Police Station. Senior Constable Caldwell was the driver of the police divisional van and Dunscombe was the observer. At approximately 8.30pm, both officers attended an EDSEC security alarm job at the Corio Primary School in Hendy Street, Corio. This was a priority job as these alarms were quite often the result of youths breaking into the schools and burglary. They arrived at the school quite quickly in response and were both in a heighten state of awareness due to the history and reliability of these types of alarms. After patrolling the school and finding no issues, both officers stopped to speak to two males on the oval as they were walking back to their vehicle to find out if they had witnessed anything. Just as they were about to leave the two males, Senior Constable Dunscombe turned towards Senior Constable Caldwell and then suddenly collapsed unconscious face first onto the ground. This happened quite suddenly and without notice. Senior Constable Caldwell called for backup and commenced chest compressions on Senior Constable Dunscombe, continuing this into the Ambulance and whilst on-route to the Geelong Hospital. He ceased this upon arrival at the Hospital after performing approximately 50 minutes of continuous compressions. Senior Constable Dunscombe was pronounced deceased at the Geelong Hospital shortly after this.