Police officers ‘made errors’ when they shot dead a 22-year-old woman just seconds after they found her wielding a knife outside a Hungry Jacks.
NSW Deputy State Coroner Liz Ryan found that the death of Courtney Topic was preventable and has demanded extensive changes to mental health training of police officers.
Ms Ryan labelled the shooting a tragedy as she delivered her inquest findings on Monday.
An inquest into the shooting of a 22-year-old woman by police seconds after they arrived outside a Hungry Jack’s where the woman was wielding a knife, has found police ‘made errors’
NSW Deputy State Coroner Liz Ryan has found that the death of Courtney Topic was preventable and has demanded extensive changes to mental health training of police officers
‘Errors were made that morning which made the resort to lethal force a tragic inevitability,’ Ms Ryan said.
‘Courtney’s death is emphatically not one where it can be said, ‘This couldn’t have been prevented.’
Officers shot Courtney 41 seconds after arriving outside a Hungry Jack’s in Hoxton Park, in Sydney’s western suburbs, following reports she was seen brandishing a 30cm long kitchen knife in February 2015.
Attempts to subdue the woman with pepper spray and a defective Taser had failed.
Police arrived on the scene after receiving several triple-zero calls before midday, and 41 seconds later a single fatal shot was fired
Although police carried out CPR, the young woman died shortly afterwards.
Counsel assisting Gerard Craddock SC told the court Ms Topic had suicidal thoughts and likely suffered undiagnosed schizophrenia and was in the middle of a days-long psychosis when she died.
Multiple witnesses described the woman acting as if she was in a daze as she walked on the grass outside the Hungry Jack’s clutching the knife in one hand.
Calls were made to police by those observed Ms Topic saying that she was talking to herself.
Constable Tyson told the Glebe Coroners Court on Monday there was no time for multiple de-escalation techniques after Ms Topic lunged at officers with the knife
In the radio broadcast put out to police units shortly before they arrived on scene, they were told the woman was pointing the knife at her own stomach and there was concern she might self-harm.
NSW Probationary Constable Angela Tyson confronted and tried to Taser the woman when she lunged at two officers.
Constable Tyson told the Glebe Coroners Court there was no time for negotiation or multiple de-escalation techniques before the woman was shot.
In shaky bodycam footage from the scene, Constable Tyson can be heard repeatedly asking the young woman to put the knife down.
Probationary Constable Angela Tyson can be heard repeatedly asking Ms Topic to put the knife down (Hungry Jack’s pictured)
‘Put the knife on the ground for me. Put it on the ground,’ she said.
When the young woman refused to put the knife down and moved towards Senior Constable Tesoriero she was fatally shot in the chest.
Constable Tyson conceded to the court that her de-escalation techniques were limited to verbal directions because there was not enough time for anything else, but insisted there was an imminent threat to her life.
‘She turned immediately to her right and looked at Senior Constable Tesoriero, she raised the knife in her left hand and extended her left arm and ran towards Tesoriero,’ Sergeant Glenn Sadler told an earlier inquest hearing.
NSW Police tried to subdue the 22-year-old with pepper spray and a defective Taser before shooting her in the chest, and although they carried out CPR, she died shortly afterwards
The inquest examined the adequacy of police training for responding to people suffering mental health problems, communication strategies and the use of weapons.
It also examined whether ‘non-lethal force’ could have been used to respond to the incident.
The court previously heard two of the three officers had only one day of mental health training before the incident, and the third officer had no training at all.
In a statement to court, Ms Topic’s family described her death as ‘sudden, unexpected and violent’.
In a statement to court, Ms Topic’s family described her death as ‘sudden, unexpected and violent’