Penrith gym junkie who shot up a police station was suffering CTE brain injury from NRL career

The family of a tattooed gym junkie who shot his ex-girlfriend’s house and two police stations before he was shot says brain injuries fueled his latest act.

Sandra King, the mother of 33-year-old Daniel King, filed the claim more than three years after her son was shot dead by police on October 2, 2019.

King had shot at his lover’s home in Marayong and then fired bullets into the police stations of St Marys and Penrith, western Sydney, before being shot by police.

Sandra said her son’s life had become hell in the run-up to the shooting, after he was repeatedly beaten by his years of rugby competition.

Daniel played semi-professionally in the sport for eight years and amateurs for five years, where he sustained blows to the head – one of which resulted in a stroke.

It comes after an inquest into Daniel’s death found he was willing to let police take his own life when he called them in to the fatal shooting.

Sandra’s belief that brain damage was behind her son’s behavior is supported by Associate Professor Michael Buckland, who examined Daniel’s brain and believes he suffered from CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

“The only reason he did what he did was because of the trauma and the pain in his head,” Sandra told the Sunday Telegraph.

“Daniel’s suffering was traumatic not only for his friends and family, but for the police that day and beyond.”

Daniel was shot 24 times by officers outside Penrith police station.

His night of rampage began when he fired a shotgun at the home of his former partner, Stacy Taylor, in Marayong at 8:45 p.m.

He then drove to St Mary’s police station where he fired three more shots before arriving in Penrith just before 10 pm.

During the carnage, a grenade from his rifle bounced off the back of a police car and struck an officer in the head.

The impact left the officer with “permanent nerve damage and memory problems.”

As it turned out, Daniel was not aiming at an officer when he fired the shotgun at the time.

It was deduced from the inquest that Daniel had no intention of harming police officers at the station as he had opportunities for kill shots and did not take them.

His mother spoke of times when her son was badly beaten while playing rugby league, when she called on sports organizations to take CTE more seriously.

Daniel’s rise through rugby league began when he was selected to play for the Penrith Panthers in an elite under 16 junior rugby league competition.

He went on to play for the Windsor Wolves where he focused on training and the aim was to play professional rugby league.

When Daniel was 22, the Wolves made it to the Grand Final and played the Sydney Bulls.

At the start of the game, Sandra recalled Daniel making the first tackle against an opposing player, with both men ‘bounce and fly’.

As a result, the opponent suffered a broken jaw and missing teeth while Daniel was eliminated.

He soon regained consciousness and played the rest of the game.

Sandra said that after the hit, her son only knew which team he was playing for by looking at his jersey.

The following year, Daniel was hit in the neck by an opponent’s shoulder during a match. His mother said the blow made him “sleepy” and his legs became “weak.”

Upon returning home, Daniel began to vomit and felt unwell. He was taken to hospital with a concussion and placed for observation.

An MRI scan revealed that he had suffered a stroke and that he had ‘lateral medullary syndrome’.

Daniel was initially “unable to communicate, interact or understand anything” and spent weeks in the hospital recovering and learning how to perform basic tasks.

Sandra says she knew her son had suffered greatly from the stroke because he “could not stand heat, was easily disoriented, his memory was affected and his eyesight was deteriorating.”

She added that even with Daniel’s considerable size and appearance, a “gust of wind could have knocked him off his feet.”

Daniel suffered from depression and increased his use of cocaine, steroids and antidepressants after the incident. His personality and behavior also changed.

Associate Professor Michael Buckland, founder of the Australian Sports Brain Bank, says it was likely Daniel had the early stages of CTE when he had the stroke.

“As things progressed, the CTE would have compromised its ability to deal with all of these life challenges. We know that many people with early stages of CTE turn to drugs and alcohol, so I would see his drug and alcohol use as a common and expected pattern of behavior for someone with early stages of CTE,” he said.

The coroner also ruled that CTE contributed to Daniel’s behavior, but could not determine whether it was the factor most affecting his deteriorating mental state.

Professor Buckland has called on youth football clubs to ban tackles to reduce the risk of children developing brain disease.

He said the effects of CTE and concussion required more research because there was no way to determine how widespread CTE was.

He added that an estimated 15 per cent of professional American football players are affected and there is no reason to believe it would be much different for rugby league, union and AFL.