A coroner has urged Queensland police to upgrade body-worn cameras after an inquiry into the fatal shooting of an outlaw bikie associate by officers.
Liam Scorsese died from gunshot wounds to his neck and chest after he was shot by police on February 25, 2018.
Two officers had responded to a triple-zero call from the mother of Scorsese’s estranged partner Chireez Beytell when the 31-year-old became aggressive kicking in doors and windows at her house at the Brisbane suburb of Wakerley.
Scorsese had suffered from paranoia from about eight months into their four-year relationship, but only when taking drugs, Ms Beytell told the inquest.
“He accused her of being a police informant, tracking his mobile phone and sleeping with other people,” State Coroner Terry Ryan said in his findings.
“He also threatened to come after her and kill her.”
On the day Scorsese died, he sent Ms Beytell a text message at 4.39am before calling about three hours later.
“He sounded paranoid, claiming there were listening devices in his house and accused her of being a police informant,” the findings state.
He was let into the house by Ms Beytell’s mother about 9.30am.
The couple went outside where Scorsese’s behaviour became erratic as he accused Ms Beytell of having an affair while he had been in jail.
Ms Beytell’s mother pulled her daughter into the house, locking the door and telling Scorsese to leave.
He refused, kicking doors and windows, and pulling out a steak knife from his shorts pocket when police arrived.
Scorsese refused to get on the ground as instructed by police, instead advancing towards the two officers armed with the knife.
He continued to walk towards constables Damon Till and Michelle Reed as they retreated down the road, yelling “just kill me” after one officer unsuccessfully tried to stop him with a Taser.
Fearing he would be stabbed when Scorsese was 2.5 metres away, Const Till fired a shot.
A second shot caused Scorsese to fall to the ground.
Asked why he didn’t use deadly force sooner, Const Till said: “Because I’ve got to live with it, and I was trying to give him every opportunity to drop the knife.
“He was being really threatening and things like that but … walking down, you know I’ve got to live with it, and at one point when he just got too close, I was like it’s either me or you, so that’s when I shot him.”
Mr Ryan concluded Const Till had reasonably feared Scorsese would kill him or cause grievous bodily harm.
Scorsese died of gunshot wounds to his neck and chest, but also had “potentially fatal” concentrations of methylamphetamine and cocaine in his blood and urine that did not play a direct role in causing his death.
Const Till had only received his body-worn camera days before the shooting and believed he had activated it after discarding his Taser.
But there were no recordings.
Mr Ryan called on Queensland Police to consider buying technology that would enable body-worn cameras to be triggered, instead of having to be activated by an officer, he said in his findings following the inquest in Brisbane last year.
The technology is available for them to be triggered by an event like when a firearm was removed from a holster, but that option has not been purchased, the inquest heard.
“This can automatically activate all body-worn cameras within a 10-metre range,” Mr Ryan said.
He also called for an audit of compliance by officers to ensure the exercise of police powers is recorded on camera.
But he found the failure to activate cameras in this instance may be partly explained by Const Till only having been given the equipment shortly before Scorsese’s death.
Mr Ryan said he had also recently recommended the Queensland government consider commissioning an independent review of arrangements for inquiries into police-related deaths as community confidence in the independent investigation of such deaths was “a matter of significant public interest”.
