Police Hunt Man Who Allegedly Killed Wife, Two Grandchildren With Ax

"Police are hunting an elderly man after a vicious home ax attack in an Australian town that seriously wounded a female police officer and left her mother and two young children dead.

Police are seeking to question John Walsh, the father of wounded Senior Constable Shelly Walsh, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Shelly Walsh is in a serious but stable condition for at Orange Base Hospital. Her two children, a 7-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl, and her mother, Mabel, were killed in the attack inside her home at Cowra.

It is feared John Walsh, in his late 70s, is heading to the Newcastle area and may commit more violence.

A neighbor has told how Shelly Walsh ran to his house bleeding and screaming for help.

“Apparently she came in screaming that her father’s gone off and axed the kids,” Terry Lovett said.

Lovett, who is in Canberra, spoke to his wife by phone shortly after the tragedy unfolded mid-afternoon today.

He said said his wife, Cheryl, helped Shelly Walsh, who had a cut across her face.

It is believed that the eldest child of the injured officer, a 9-year-old, was at school at the time of the attack and checks are being made on this child's welfare.

Police have informed the father of the children, also believed to be a police officer, that they have been killed and are now protecting him with the belief John Walsh is on his way to harm him."

If Walsh makes it to Newcastle and has any familiarity with living off the land he isn't getting caught unless he wants to be caught.

Famous for coal mining...hence the name...and penniless Aborigines, Newcastle is enough off the beaten path to be a real pain in the ass for searchers, and anyone with knowledge of the old Abo trails could hide out indefinitely. If he comes out into the open to chop up the policeman father of his grandkids they shouldn't have all that much difficulty stopping an oldtimer with an ax, but this is Oz after all and the dozens of armed cops protecting one of their own might be enough of a giveaway to keep gramps in hiding. I've camped out that way enough times to know my way around, but wouldn't go to Oz if they paid me by the second.

Not much freedom there. Folks are subjects and have been disarmed. Which is why I came back to the states to begin with.