A GOOD Samaritan was stabbed repeatedly in the back and his attacker shot several times by police after pepper spray failed to help subdue him following a violent domestic dispute in Meadow Heights yesterday afternoon.
Police said the stabbing victim, aged 65, was in the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition, while the gunman, in his 20s, was in the same hospital under police guard in a serious but stable condition.
Police were called to the Paringa Boulevard address just after 2pm after reports of a domestic confrontation between a man and his mother and sister.
Assistant Commissioner Tim Cartwright said the mother, aged 59, had fled the house after her son had choked her and her daughter.
She ran from the family home pleading for help and the Roxburgh Park man, who was walking by, went to her aid.
''At that stage he came out of the house armed with a knife and stabbed the passerby in the back several times,'' he said.
Police arrived at the scene and went to the the aid of the two victims. By then the man had returned to the house, but rushed back out to confront police.
''They called on him to drop the knife, he has not complied, he confronted the members and they sprayed him and the spray had no effect,'' he said.
The Assistant Commissioner said the man then lunged at a police officer with a knife and cut him.
He was then shot several times in the upper body by another police officer.
''I don't think there was any other option other than to shoot him at that stage,'' Assistant Commissioner Cartwright said.
He said it was ''horrific'' that a man who had gone to the aid of a pleading victim was now in hospital as a victim himself.
''Here's a man doing what we hoped people would do - helping an elderly woman in distress,'' he said.
The policeman was taken to hospital and treated for a cut to his right arm and the mother and her 22-year-old daughter were also taken to hospital, having suffered minor injuries.
