The 28-year-old intruder at the centre of a Queensland childcare centre emergency had a lengthy criminal history, including charges for stalking, weapon offences and drug dealing.<\/p>\n
Reubhan Mickeal Gary Ralph was on parole when he died on Monday after smashing his way into the Habitat Early Learning childcare centre at Peregian Springs on the Sunshine Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is understood he was armed, and police tasered him multiple times.<\/p>\n
Ralph was not known to any staff or families at the centre.<\/p>\n
Police are investigating whether he was in a drug psychosis at the time of his death.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Police were called to Habitat Childcare Centre at Peregian Springs about 6pm on Monday. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Attack at closing time<\/p>\n
The centre had five staff and six children inside and was winding down at 6pm, about 30 minutes before it was due to close.<\/p>\n
The staff heard Ralph’s efforts to break in and swiftly moved to hide the children.<\/p>\n
The time it took him to smash through the centre’s front glass doors was enough for them to alert police, who arrived to confront Ralph soon after.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The offender was not known to any staff or families of the centre. (ABC News: Madeline Grace)<\/p>\n
They attempted to subdue Ralph, who was self-harming.<\/p>\n
Ralph died in the custody of police.<\/p>\n
History of drugs, crime, stalking<\/p>\n
Court documents chronicled Ralph’s criminal history, starting in 2021, which included multiple drug offences.<\/p>\n
Since then, he faced court multiple times and was convicted for drug driving, speeding, drug trafficking, breaching bail, stalking, and carrying a knife in public.<\/p>\n
He spent five months in custody for the stalking offences.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, he was part of a syndicate which sold narcotics on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n
The money he made was used to pay off his drug debts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Emergency services responded quickly after staff raised the alarm. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Most recently, in May last year, Ralph pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to possessing and selling drugs.<\/p>\n
He was convicted but had his three-and-a-half-year prison sentence wholly suspended and was put on probation for two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n
Ralph was released on parole in June after breaching his bail conditions.<\/p>\n
Police acted ‘extremely well’<\/p>\n
Queensland Police Union president Shane Prior said every officer at the scene acted bravely during the “harrowing incident”.<\/p>\n
“One young constable used initiative and resourcefulness to enter the rear of the premises without the offender being aware and guided the children and carers to safety,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He has saved these kids from a potential lifetime of trauma.<\/p>\n
“Every officer there stood between a violent intruder and innocent children. It’s a selfless act police are prepared to do to keep the community safe.”<\/p>\n
Dan Purdie says he has spoken with the responding officers. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n
Police and Emergency Services Minister Daniel Purdie said he spoke with officers after the attack.<\/p>\n
“They handled it extremely well and did whatever they could to protect the children and carers,” Mr Purdie said.<\/p>\n
“It really was a horrific incident for this tight-knit community.”<\/p>\n
A Queensland Police Service spokesperson said the childcare evacuation was a team effort between several police officers and facility staff, not one specific officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 28-year-old intruder at the centre of a Queensland childcare centre emergency had a lengthy criminal history, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10947,62677,1108,62675,43,62676,44,1158,11942,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-83016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-childcare","tag-childcare-centre-sunshine-coast","tag-court","tag-habitat-early-learning-childcare-centre","tag-headlines","tag-man-breaks-into-childcare-centre","tag-news","tag-police","tag-sunshine-coast","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}