A coroner has now found his death could have been avoided if he had been prevented from entering the station while he was on sick leave for mental health issues.
After 40 years in the Victoria Police force, the leading senior constable who can only be identified by the initials WB, accessed a firearm and ended his life at Olinda Police Station in Melbourne's east, in 2018.
WB joined Victoria Police in 1978 and worked at police stations including Ashburton, Malvern, Glen Waverley, Knox and Belgrave, where he was placed from March 2010 until his death.
Almost seven years on, coroner Audrey Jamieson recently handed down her findings, saying the 59-year-old's death could have been prevented if he didn't have the ability to access the station or its firearms while on leave.
WB was on sick leave from the force with ongoing mental health issues when he used a swipe card to enter the station and self-inflicted a gunshot wound.
As part of the "Belgrave station cluster" WB had access to the Olinda station through his swipe card.
He was later found inside its disabled toilet by a colleague.
While WB's colleagues went "above and beyond" in their care for WB, the coroner said Victoria Police was never officially made aware of his suicidal or self-harm risk, and medical practitioners who cared for him believed the risk was mitigated if he did not return to work.
Ms Jamieson said if WB had been unable to access the station and obtain a firearm from the safe, his death would have been preventable.
"Given his access to other lethal means, I am unable to make a finding that his death was preventable in its entirety," she said.
She recommended Victoria Police implement an audit system to make sure access cards are revoked as soon as members no longer need access and that digital locks be changed on a regular basis.
A spokesperson for Victoria Police sent its condolences to WB's family.
"We will now take the time to fully consider the coroner's recommendation," the spokesman said on Tuesday.
"Victoria Police takes the health and wellbeing of its workforce incredibly seriously and is open to considering any measures that improve safety."
WB is not the first police officer to die in a police station in Victoria.
In 2023, a senior sergeant ended his life at the Moorabbin Police station and in 2010, Healesville sergeant Tony Van Gorp died in similar circumstances.
A coronial investigation into the Moorabbin death in February ordered an investigation into the deaths of all 35 Victoria Police employees who died by suicide in the past 15 years.
Of those who died, 30 were sworn police officers and 80 per cent were male.
Service firearms were used in eight of those deaths, and six occurred within the deceased's workplace.
Evidence of diagnosed mental illness was found in 22 of the 35 with depression being the most common.
There was a substantial overlap between work-related stressors, personal factors and mental ill health for those who took their own lives.
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