Lindt siege inquest: Top cop expected tried-and-true tactics to ensure ‘negotiated and peaceful outcome’

POLICE had planned to storm the Lindt Cafe if any of the hostages were in danger but changed strategy to wait until a hostage was killed or seriously injured.

• Police had to assume Monis backpack bomb was real
• Police sniper pleaded, Let me kill Man Monis now

POLICE originally planned to storm the Lindt Cafe if any of the hostages were in imminent danger but apparently changed strategy to wait until a hostage was killed or seriously injured, the inquest was told yesterday.

Assistant Commissioner Mick Fuller, the first commander on the scene of the December 2014 siege, said the initial trigger for the so-called emergency action plan was “immediate or imminent threat of serious harm or death.”

Mr Fuller, one of the state’s most senior officers, said that was the briefing he handed over to the head of the anti-terrorism squad, Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch, at 12.10pm after the siege had been declared a terrorist incident. But the inquest heard a police log entry at 12.27pm stated: “EA briefed. Triggers being death or injury to hostages.”

The question of if police left it too late to storm the cafe after manager Tori Johnson was shot dead by gunman Man Monis is at the heart of the inquest into the state’s first terrorist siege. Heavily armed Tactical Response Unit officers, who still believed Monis had a bomb in his backpack, made their move at 2.13am on December 16, 17 hours into the siege, after Mr Johnson was shot dead.

Monis had already fired two warning shots — at 2.03am when six hostages escaped and again at 2.11am.

He had told Mr Johnson to kneel at 2.06am.

NSW Police will today argue certain categories of the evidence of officers be heard in a closed court to protect methodology and policies.

Lawyers for Mr Johnson’s family and the family of barrister Katrina Dawson, who died after being hit by the fragment of a police bullet when the cafe was stormed, are opposing the application.

Monis was also killed by TOU officers.

Assistant Commissioner Fuller couldn’t rule out a robbery gone wrong. Picture: Chris McKeen

The police have already backed down from their original application to have all the evidence of officers held in secret with the only material released to the public being redacted portions of the transcript of evidence.

Mr Fuller, who was in charge from 9.50am on December 15, soon after the siege started, said it had never been his intention that one of the 18 hostages should be shot dead or seriously injured before the TOU went in to the cafe.

“My intention was if shots were fired at a hostage, we go in. We don’t wait for the EA or DA (deliberate action),” Mr Fuller said.

Phillip Boulten SC, counsel for Mr Johnson’s family, read out the wording of the 12.27am log entry.

“That does not reflect the information that was given to Mr Murdoch on the handover, does it?” Mr Boulten asked.

Mr Fuller: “If that is what is in there, I agree.”

State Coroner Michael Barnes overruled a police objection to Mr Fuller being asked whether he thought the EA plan should have been triggered before 2.13am.

Mr Fuller is expected to continue in the witness box at the inquest in Sydney today.