SA Police said the incident occurred around 11.20pm on Thursday when police attended a property on Senior Road, Senior – a rural locality about 15km north of Bordertown.

Police said they were attending the property to investigate an earlier incident.

Attending officers were then confronted by an armed suspect and a “shooting incident” occurred.

One officer was fatally shot and died at the scene despite the efforts of paramedics and his colleagues.

He has been identified as 53-year-old Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig – the officer in charge of the Lucindale police station.

Doig joined the police force in 1989, and has been in charge of the Lucindale police station for more than 15 years.

Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig outside Lucindale Police Station. Photo provided by his family via SA Police

A second officer was shot and sustained non-life-threatening wounds. He was transported to Adelaide for treatment and has since been identified by Police as Sergeant Michael Hutchinson.

A third officer at the scene, Constable Rebekah Cass, was not injured.

Police shot the armed suspect, who sustained life-threatening injuries and was also transported to Adelaide for treatment.

The suspect is a 26-year-old man and is now under police guard.

Police said there was no further threat to the community.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who has travelled to Bordertown, said the shooting was “an incredibly tragic incident for the South Australian police”.

“I can only imagine what the family of Jason are feeling at this point in time, and I can speak on behalf of the police officers here in the southeast and the remainder of the police within the South Australia Police and right across Australia that no one is left untouched by this tragic incident,” Stevens said.

“There wouldn’t be one single police officer today not thinking about the sacrifice that Jason has made.”

The Police Commissioner added that there was a report of the use of a firearm involving an animal.

“Police were investigating that incident,” Stevens said.

“The full circumstances of their attendance will be part of the Commission’s inquiry.”

Major Crime Detectives are attending the scene, with a coronial investigation and a commissioner’s investigation to be held into the incident.

Commissioner Stevens said Police still did not have “a full understanding of all the circumstances” leading up to the fatal shooting, but described the visit by the police to the 26-year-old’s home as “part of the daily routine”.

“There was nothing in the information that we are able to ascertain at this point in time that would have indicated that it was a high-risk incident,” Stevens said.

“We provide the right tools, equipment and training so they can do their job as safely as possible, but you can’t get past the reality that policing often involves dealing with violent offenders.

“The full circumstances will be provided at a later point in time.”

The last police officer to be killed on duty was Senior Constable Bogdan (Bob) Sobczak a motorcycle officer who was killed in a road crash in 2002.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said flags would be flown at half-mast at official locations in South Australia.

He also acknowledged the bravery of the two other officers at the scene of the shooting.

In a statement, Police Association of South Australia president Mark Carroll said “the collective heart of the nation’s police is broken and, right now, it feels broken beyond repair”.

“In policing, we are a family, and we’ve lost a brother so, today, we’re a family in shock, in pain, and in grief,” Carroll said.

“This horror is what all of us in policing live in fear of – it is our dread, that one of us, or one of our workmates, has his or her life taken. And for what?”

He said he “understood the realities of our work” but hoped that “a loss like this will never happen”.

“We are gutted and hurting, as an organisation and as individuals,” Carroll said.

“But now, we have a duty, and that is to Jason’s family and friends, who likely see nothing but the bleakness of loss in their immediate future.

“In whatever way we can help them emerge and carry on, as Jason would have wanted them to, we’ll do it.”

– InDaily reporters with AAP