General News
23 March, 2026
Fallen Officer receives Blue Heart
Senior Constable Brett Forte who was fatally shot while responding to a violent offender in 2017, has been posthumously awarded the blue heart alongside fellow fallen officers.
The Blue Heart Medal was established in 2023 and was an initiative of the Queensland Police Union to acknowledge members seriously injured or killed while on duty.
The families of two late Queensland Police Officers have received posthumous medals in their honour in a special ceremony.
On 26 February, The Forte and Masters families gathered at the Avenue of Remembrance at the Queensland Police Academy, where the QPS commemorates police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
They received the Blue Heart medals in memory of Senior Constable Brett Forte and Senior Constable David Masters.
Senior Constable Brett Forte was performing duties as a member of the Darling Downs District Tactical Crime Squad, Toowoomba.
He and his partner, driving a police vehicle, were following a known dangerous, wanted, male offender along the Warrego Highway.
Senior Constable Forte continued to follow the vehicle off the highway and onto Wallers Road, Ringwood, when the male offender quickly alighted from his vehicle and opened fire, with an automatic weapon, on the police vehicle.
After the Forte and Masters families were presented with the medals, there was a minute silence.
The QPS has named one of its Polair helicopters ‘Brett A Forte’ in honour of the late Senior Constable.
