Alleged shooter of Sydney cop 'a former ice addict nurse'

A man charged with shooting a police officer and a security guard inside a western Sydney hospital's emergency department is a nurse who had been released on bail earlier that day for allegedly attacking two policemen.

The 39-year-old man is accused of holding a pair of scissors to the throat of a female doctor at Nepean Hospital last night, and then grabbing a gun from Senior Constable Luke Warburton's holster and shooting him in the upper thigh during a scuffle.

The alleged shooter was a former nurse at nearby Westmead Hospital who had left two years ago, partly because of addiction to the drug ice, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

He was arrested on Tuesday morning and charged with break and enter of a property in Colyton, as well as assaulting two police officers and resisting arrest.

He was bailed and taken to Nepean Hospital in police custody, before being discharged on Tuesday afternoon.

The man somehow suffered more injuries in the evening, including a suspected broken jaw, forcing him to return to Nepean Hospital that night.

An argument then erupted between the man and his wife, who is believed to be in her teens, in Nepean Hospital's emergency ward.

Snr Cnst Warburton was the first police officer on the scene, and the man allegedly fired the officer's gun twice, hitting the policeman and a security guard, before he was subdued.

An elderly witness said the man screamed, "I'm gonna kill you" and "You took my family" before the shots were fired.

Snr Const Warburton is in a critical but stable condition.

The security guard was shot in the calf, and is in a stable condition.

Snr Const Warburton, the handler of police dog Chuck, was instrumental in the capture of one of Australia's most wanted fugitives, Malcolm Naden, in 2012.

In 2012, Chuck brought Naden to heel, biting the murderer on the arm as he emerged from his Hunter Valley hideaway in the dead of night.