A police officer has told a coronial inquest he didn’t have enough time to turn on his body-worn camera before he fatally shot a Sydney man who ran at him with two kitchen knives, amid conflicting statements on what unfolded in the critical moments before the man was killed.
Steve Pampalian, 41, was shot three times by a police officer in the driveway of his home on a quiet suburban street in Sydney’s North Willoughby on 25 May 2023 after he had a psychotic episode.
He was the second of four vulnerable people – alongside Clare Nowland, Jesse Deacon and Krista Kach – who died in separate incidents in consecutive months in 2023 after interactions with the police. The cases triggered increased scrutiny over how police respond to mental health incidents.
The first responding officer, Const Jason Bryan, told the long-awaited inquest into Pampalian’s death this week that officers typically turn on body-worn cameras when exercising police powers or gathering evidence, although it is not mandatory.
It was not clear when Bryan turned on his camera but the inquest heard the camera was off when Pampalian was shot.
“[I] didn’t have enough time to turn it on any earlier than whenever I did turn it on,” he said.
The second responding officer, Const Elizabeth Trupiano, was not wearing a body-worn camera at all. She told the inquest that between 25% and 50% of the body-worn cameras at Chatswood police station were not “working” at the time and there was not one available for her that day.
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In 2022, the then Coalition state government set aside $100m to pay for technology that would automatically activate body-worn cameras when police officers draw Tasers or guns. However, this was delayed indefinitely in 2023.
‘He was in a psychotic state’
The inquest heard that multiple neighbours called police on the day of Pampalian’s death after they saw him muttering to himself and chasing a woman up the road. All but one of the six neighbours or bystanders who have given evidence so far did not recognise or know Pampalian, despite him living with his parents on the street.
“From his facial expressions you could see he wasn’t in a good state, it was very contorted,” one neighbour, Ben Carstein, told the inquest. “He was in a psychotic state.”
Pampalian’s brother, Eddie, previously told Guardian Australia this was the first time his tight-knit family had known Steve to have a psychotic episode. Eddie had described his brother as a “gentle soul” and said he had anxiety which at its worst had resulted in panic attacks.
Pampalian went to the doctor 11 days before he died to get a new script for his antidepressants, which he had taken since 2014. The doctor noted nothing out of the ordinary.
Two days before, Pampalian had texted the salon where he worked as a hairdresser saying a doctor said he needed a week off, the inquest heard. His internet search history shows that over the next two days he searched terms including “delirium”, “how anxiety can cause delirium”, “satan in delusion”, and “what vision of God means”.
At 10.30am on the morning he was shot, his parents left the house. They said Pampalian appeared normal, and thought he was off work due to the flu.
Carstein told the inquest he saw Pampalian try to get into one home on the street before entering another, which he didn’t realise was Pampalian’s own home.
“I had only seen an elderly couple there,” Carstein said. “[I] could hear things being smashed.”
‘It felt less than 30 seconds’
Trupiano told the inquest the pair responded to the job believing it was an active break and enter, not a mental health incident. Both officers had joined the force about two years before the incident. The inquest heard Trupiano had never used a weapon before when responding to an incident.
Trupiano said Bryan got out of the car to speak to bystanders while she parked. She said it felt like “less than 30 seconds” passed between that moment and Bryan firing three shots.
Bryan, who has since retired, told the inquest he recalled walking towards the house and seeing a smashed window frame on the ground and Pampalian’s feet hanging out the window.
He recalled calling out something like “hey mate, what’s going on” before Pampalian moved. Bryan said Pampalian then appeared two to three metres away from him beside the house. He held kitchen knives in the air and ran towards him.
“He was running but it wasn’t like a quick run or a sprint,” Bryan said.
Bryan ran backwards and did not recall what he said, although witnesses recalled him yelling “police”. Bryan also did not recall how many times he fired his gun. He told the inquest he recalled Pampalian falling to his knees after he fired one shot. Pampalian then got back up and continued towards him holding the knives before Bryan shot again, the inquest heard.
Trupiano also told the inquest Pampalian fell to his knees before getting back up, although this was not in her initial statement. She said her memory was “foggy”.
The neighbours witnessed the tragedy from various viewpoints. Some told the inquest they saw Pampalian stumbling after being shot, but not falling to his knees. One described Pampalian “charging” towards the police, while another said he was glad the police didn’t rely on a stun gun because “this bloke would have gone through a brick wall”.
The only resident who recognised Pampalian as her neighbour recalled it differently. She told the inquest his “arm gestures” were quick and he was moving faster than he normally would have, but he was “not a quick-moving soul”. She recalled three shots fired in quick succession, one after the other, before he fell face down.
Neither police officer performed first aid after Pampalian was shot, the inquest heard. Asked about this, Bryan said: “I had a physical reaction to the emotional stress.”
“I was having a human reaction not a robot reaction so I was physically incapable of performing first aid,” he said.
Trupiano told the inquest her first concern was for the people around her or if there were others inside the home.
Bryan was questioned over why he did not use capsicum spray or a stun gun. He said they weren’t appropriate due to the immediate risk to his and others’ lives.
“There were no other options I could have taken at that time,” he said.
The inquest continues.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
