Lindt siege: Police sniper pleaded, Let me kill gunman Man Monis now
A POLICE sniper believed he could kill Man Monis and end the Lindt cafe siege without any deaths of any hostages; police are fighting to keep that secret.
A POLICE sniper believed he could kill gunman Man Haron Monis and end the Lindt cafe siege without the deaths of any hostages, but the NSW Police Force is fighting to keep that secret.
The police are expected to make an application to the State Coroner this morning, when the siege inquest resumes, for all evidence on police involvement to be heard behind closed doors.
They will argue a transcript of the evidence — including what police commanders were thinking and recommending during the 17-hour siege — be released days later with agreed sections redacted, Channel 7 reported last night.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that one of the three police snipers in place around the Martin Place cafe believed they could fatally shoot Monis at 7.30pm on December 15, 2014, and save all the hostages.
Instead, the police continued a policy to negotiate and contain the terrorist, with only the death or serious injury of a hostage to trigger their Emergency Action Plan to storm the cafe. They did not act until 2.13am on December 16 when Monis shot dead cafe manager Tori Johnson with a shotgun at point black range.
In the ensuing assault on the cafe by Tactical Operations Unit officers, hostage Katrina Dawson died after a fragment of a police bullet hit her.
The evidence it is understood police want to have heard in secret involves a recreation of the scene complete with the sniper’s view into the cafe, the type of glass in place at the time and whether or not such a shot would have been successful.
The inquest has been told three police snipers chose their own positions surrounding the cafe — in the Channel 7 building, the Westpac building and the Reserve Bank. Officers feared right up to the end that Monis had a bomb in his backpack with enough explosives to kill everyone in the cafe.
The sniper’s belief is contained in statements tendered in the brief of evidence to the inquest and reveal that about 7.30pm he specifically asked if he could take a “kill shot”. The reasoning behind refusing this request is among the evidence police are understood to be requesting be heard in secret.
In an inquest that will have national ramifications for the handling of future crises, the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb SC has already come under fire for successfully using public interest immunity arguments to suppress details of why his office failed to successfully challenge Monis’s bail on charges of accessory to murder and a series of sexual offence charges.
A NSW Police spokesman said last night that they could not comment while the inquest was continuing.
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