A former general duties police officer who spoke to a mentally ill man for more than three hours before he was fatally shot by specialist police has told a court he regrets some of the things he said.
An inquest is underway in the Taree Courthouse, where the Coroner's Court is sitting, to determine the circumstances around the death of Todd McKenzie at his home on the NSW Mid North Coast on the night of July 31, 2019.
Mr McKenzie, 40, of Taree had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He was armed with a knife during a nine-hour siege that ended with officers from the NSW Police Tactical Operations Unit storming his home and shooting him three times.
Then-Senior Constable Glenn Larrain, who is no longer working for the force, spent more than three hours talking to Mr McKenzie through a window before negotiators arrived.
In body-worn footage played at the inquest on Monday, Senior Constable Larrain could be heard challenging Mr McKenzie to a fight.
"I'll take my gun off. Come out the back and we'll have a fight," he was heard saying in the video.
"Just because your family served [in the army] doesn't mean you did.
"At the end of the day, Todd, basically everything you say is a lie. I know you didn't serve, I know you weren't an ANZAC.
"You've done nothing for your country except be a drain on them. Do you get Centrelink? How do you pay for this house?"
Officer was 'mentally drained'
When asked by Senior Counsel Jason Downing if he gave any consideration to Mr McKenzie's delusional state or how those comments would provoke him, Mr Larrain replied "no".
He told Mr Downing the questioning was focusing on "very few bad things in three-and-a-half hours ... focusing on 10 minutes of that … only focusing on the negative"
In addition, Mr Larrain told the inquest there was "a very good chance he [Mr McKenzie] wasn't there ... in earshot."
"There was a very good chance of me talking out loud to myself," Mr Larrain told the court.
He told the court his "goal was to get him [Mr McKenzie] to come out of the house" and "if that didn't work, keep him talking ... try and keep him where I could see him".
When the Deputy State Coroner, Magistrate Harriet Grahame, asked about any available support or possible relief for Mr Larrain, he replied, "It would have been nice but ... no-one put their hand up."
The court heard that before the incident, Mr Larrain, an officer of seven years, had undertaken a mental health workshop for roughly a day.
Mr Larrain, who labelled himself the "second most junior officer there", said by the time negotiators arrived, he was "mentally drained".
He told the court he did not remember details of the phone call from forward command not to engage in a confrontational conversation because of Mr McKenzie's schizophrenia.
"The way I recall the phone call is not be doing what I was doing," he said.
But Mr Larrain told the court he took that as "advice" not an order.
Mr Larrain said he did the opposite of the advice he received because "it was the only thing that worked, that kept him [Mr McKenzie] at the window".
"Straight after the phone call, I don't remember getting the phone call," he said.
"I was confused [about] whether I had it as a face-to-face conversation.
"Because of the stress of the situation I just don't recall the phone call ... it's very strange but it happened."
The court also heard Mr Larrian responded to a job involving Mr McKenzie the day before the fatal shooting, but there was no follow-up with the person who called police, or a check on Mr McKenzie, as police were busy.
'Absolutely inappropriate'
The Senior Critical Investigator, Detective Inspector Wayne Walpole, told the court he was concerned at the contents of the body-worn video.
"What [the officer] was doing was absolutely inappropriate, unprofessional," Detective Inspector Walpole said.
"He was given direction ... that negotiation had to be non-confrontational because of Todd's schizophrenia."
During his evidence, Mr Larrain told the court he had "always regretted saying some of the things I said".
Mr Larrain said he would have tried to give negotiators as much information as he could have when they arrived and took over.
"It's just really unfortunate but the way certain things run like this incident is the reasons why I have suffered and a lot of police have suffered," he told the court.
"No police officer goes to work to shoot somebody. They do the job because they want to help people."
Todd McKenzie's father, Mark McKenzie, said the inquest had been a long time coming.
"It's been almost four years since he was shot and it's been very tough," he said outside court.
He said he wanted to see "change and reforms".
"I know that is going to be like Muhammad and the mountain," he said.
"Police don't get it, they don't understand the non-compliance of someone who is suffering psychosis.
"There were three shots fired into Todd's back and one missed ... and I don't think that's responsible policing. There were very young children living next door. I hope these questions are raised."
The inquest is set down for three weeks, with the final week moving to Sydney.
