A Melbourne man who savagely stabbed his own mother in a public park "didn't even flinch" after he was shot by police, an inquest has heard.
Warning: This article contains content that some readers may find distressing.
Gabriel Messo was in the grips of a mental health episode and was brutally attacking his mother, Lilla Messo, when police officers gunned him down at a public park in Melbourne's north-west in July 2020.
His death is being investigated by Victoria's Coroner, John Cain, who is looking at several issues including the circumstances of Mr Messo's death, attempted mental health interventions, and the training provided to mental health workers.
The coroner today heard confronting but differing accounts about what happened in the seconds before Mr Messo was shot.
Senior Constable Rebecca Churcher, who responded to the triple-0 call, arrived on the scene moments after her partner and saw Mr Messo, who was armed.
"I could see a bloody person laying on the ground," she said.
"I could see that the male was stabbing the person.
"I've never seen anything that bad before."
In emotional testimony, Senior Constable Churcher told the coroner that her partner yelled at Mr Messo to stop stabbing but he continued after "looking directly" at them.
She said that "seconds later" her partner, who cannot be named for legal reasons, fired his gun.
"It was like he didn't even flinch and then he [Mr Messo] went back to stabbing the person," she said.
"He started to advance on us."
The inquest heard that her partner then shot Mr Messo a second and then a third time before Mr Messo collapsed.
"I remember looking at the guy's face completely draining and he sort of took a couple of steps back and then fell," she said.
Police actions in seconds leading up to shooting probed
Senior Constable Churcher, who trained as a paramedic, wept as she told the coroner that she then ran to Lilla Messo and tried to care for her.
Ms Messo survived the attack but ultimately lost an eye and developed an acquired brain injury.
Ms Messo's husband, Fuat Messo, wiped away tears as the distressing details were aired in court.
But Ben Ihle QC, who is assisting the coroner, put to Senior Constable Churcher that she was still moving towards the scene when Mr Messo was shot by her partner, who had arrived first.
He pointed to footage taken by bystanders.
"I don't know," she said.
He put to Senior Constable Churcher that the dead man did not try to close the distance between himself and the police officers.
"That's not what I recall," Senior Constable Churcher said.
"He's actually increased the distance," Mr Ihle said.
"I don't recall that," she said.
Absence of body-worn-camera footage scrutinised
The coroner will only be able to assess the perspectives of the two police officers from their written statements and evidence on the stand because their body cameras were turned off.
He is investigating why they were not switched on, in addition to the use of force during the violent incident.
Senior Constable Churcher told the coroner that she turned her camera onto stand-by before the incident and remembered hearing her partner's camera beeping, which indicated it was also on stand-by.
But the inquest heard that her partner only realised after the shooting that his camera had not been recording, and neither had hers.
"Do you consider ... that there were opportunities to approach this incident differently?" Mr Ihle asked her.
"No," she said.
"You don't think that there was an opportunity first of all to ensure that your body worn camera was recording?" he said.
"Well, I tried," she said.
Senior Constable Churcher agreed that there was nothing stopping her from turning her camera on while driving to the incident.
And under questioning, she told the coroner that there were few other options than shooting Mr Messo.
"You don't believe there was an opportunity to consider an option that was less than lethal," Mr Ihle said.
"No," she said.
"Perhaps even if it was less than lethal or backed up by one or other of you with a lethal option," he said.
"No," she said.
Late this afternoon, Senior Constable Churcher's partner made an application to the coroner to be excused from giving evidence on the stand out of fear that it would incriminate him, or open him up to a civil lawsuit.
The coroner has reserved his decision until Friday morning.
