The fatal shooting of a 38-year-old man by police at Brighton on Monday night unfolded over a matter of minutes, police have said.
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Police were called to a rural property on Tea Tree Road at 8pm by an occupant of the house where the man was staying.
Deputy Commissioner Scott Tilyard said a man was acting aggressively towards the home's occupants, to whom he was related, and had refused to leave.
He said a child was present at the house at the time.
Mr Tilyard said three officers from the Bridgewater station arrived in the one car and saw smoke coming from part of the house.
He said the man drove at the police vehicle as it rolled into the driveway and hit its front.
Mr Tilyard said the driver then reversed up to 15 metres up the driveway as three police officers left their vehicle.
"The male then drove back towards the officers and particularly towards one of the officers who had limited room to move," he said.
"Two of the officers had then drawn and fired their fire arms at the vehicle."
Mr Tilyard said it was believed about 10 shots were fires and the man was hit by two of these bullets - one in the head and one in the shoulder.
He said the man received first aid from the officers as an ambulance was called. but he died at the scene.
Mr Tilyard said investigation of the incident was in its infancy and police still needed to interview witnesses and the officers involved.
"Any situation in which a vehicle is driven at someone is a dangerous situation and the officers have obviously responded to the threat as they perceived it," he said.
"Their actions will obviously be examined as part of the investigation."
The officers were wearing body worn cameras and vision captured is being reviewed, Mr Tilyard said.
"This is something that we try and avoid at all costs - to have to be put into a situation where you have to take someone's life or even inflict serious injury," he said.
"This is something we try not to do but occasionally it is unfortunately necessary."
Mr Tilyard said it was unrealistic for police to be expected to aim for certain body parts in a fast-moving dangerous situation.
He said police were trained to aim for big body mass areas.
Police Association of Tasmania president Colin Riley said the incident was a tragedy for all involved.
"No police officer goes to work at the start of their shift and thinks this will happen to them on their watch," he said.
"This incident again highlights the dangerous work police do in the community.
"In Tasmania, an average of four police officers are assaulted each week.
"In the past four months alone, there have now been five serious assaults on police across the state."
Mr Riley said in December, a driver allegedly reverses into an officer on a motorcycle and ran over him twice and last month an officer was allegedly struck by a stolen motorcycle.