Police had no option but to respond with lethal force after a man began firing a high-powered rifle from a four-wheel-drive, a coroner has found.

Benjamin Anthony Freear died on the morning of December 8, 2019 after being shot four times by Queensland Police’s Special Emergency Response Team.

In findings handed down last week, coroner Terry Ryan accepted that the specialist tactical officers’ actions were appropriate and justified after Mr Freear opened fire at them with one of the most powerful rifles available in Australia.

“An attempt to deploy the less lethal use of force options would have unnecessarily exposed the (officers) to unacceptable risk, and would have been a tactically poor decision,” an internal police investigation found.

Police were responding to reports that Mr Freear had used two rifles to threaten multiple people and said he would “have a battle with the cops” after a night of drinking and shooting at a rural property north of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Four officers in two unmarked LandCruiser four-wheel-drives entered the property at 6.50am when Mr Freear approached in his own LandCruiser and opened fire with a vintage military bolt-action rifle.

One of the police vehicles was hit as the officers returned fire while retreating and Mr Freear drove at them while holding a rifle out this window with the barrel resting on a side mirror.

He was shot three times in the arm and shoulder before being fatally shot in the neck after he approached the officers on foot.

His LandCruiser was hit by 37 police bullets during the gunfight.

An inquest in 2023 and 2024 heard Mr Freear was an experienced shooter and hunter but did not have a firearms licence.

Mr Freear’s family described him as a generous “true Aussie bushman” who had moved to camp on a friend’s farm after a long-term relationship ended.

“He would be friends with people who were on the fringes of society such as people with disabilities and mental illness,” the family’s statement said.

On the night before his death Mr Freear told a friend it had been a “really shit year” and he had suffered from depression.

Hours later he started behaving erratically, punching out a vehicle’s windscreen, threatening to hunt down and kill people, pointing a rifle at his companions and firing bullets at their vehicle.

Mr Ryan had been asked by Mr Freear’s family to investigate his diagnosis of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder about 18 months before his death and him being prescribed amphetamine-based medication.

An autopsy showed Mr Freear was taking a “reasonable” amount of dexamphetamine and had abused his medication.

“I conclude the diagnosis of ADHD in April 2018 was clinically reasonable, adequate and appropriate,” Mr Ryan said.

Mr Ryan did not make any recommendations.

“It is clear that Ben was loved by his family and his passing has caused them enormous pain,” he said.