Erina axe attack: Inquest reveals what really happened before Jasson Pearce was fatally shot by police

One officer jumped off a balcony before another opened fire, fatally shooting an axe-wielding man at Erina in 2019. For the first time a Coroner’s inquest has revealed what really happened.

Jasson Brian Pearce, 47, was fatally shot by police at Erina when he opened the door armed with an axe. Picture: supplied

Roofing contractor Jasson Brian Pearce was losing his grip on reality.

His brother’s death in 2015 “hit him hard” and before long his family and friends began to suspect he may have become addicted to “ice”.

Pearce lost weight and became “increasingly paranoid”.

He was charged with assaulting his partner, the mother of his two children, in November 2015 but was cleared following a hearing in 2016.

By then police had taken out an apprehended violence order (AVO) anyway and within weeks he breached it.

Pearce sent thousands of texts to her and others in the months leading up to his death.

It became part of his pattern of behaviour, with the vast majority of the “excessive, threatening and inappropriate” text messages sent after 6pm. That is, after he knocked off work and started drinking and or taking drugs.

Jasson Pearce was shot and killed by police when he approached them with an axe. Picture: supplied

Neighbours also reported various run-ins with him yelling obscenities or threatening them during “one of his drunken rants” or when he was “heavily intoxicated” and probably on “ice”.

On Friday, November 1, 2019 his ex-partner had dropped some forms off in his letter box.

Pearce sent her a flurry of messages after he got home from work. The first at 3.45pm stated “Please no more we need to split”. The last at 6.04pm read “You hurt me today for the last time”.

Pearce had a few beers with a colleague and another tradie before going to a house at Davistown and then the Woodport Inn where another friend dragged him out of the pokie room and dropped him home about 6.48pm.

By 10pm a group of ladies having a “bath and bedroom accessories party” next door could hear loud music and a man yelling.

They went to a window on the first floor and saw a “really bright orange flame and a whoosh sound like something being ignited”.

Neighbours reported seeing Pearce shoot a homemade “flamethrower” from his kitchen window towards a neighbour’s bedroom window. Picture: Richard Noone

The women heard Pearce yelling “I’ll burn the house down” and “I’ll run through and cut all your throats”.

The women called police at 10.18pm with two Highway Patrol cars and a general duties car arriving four minutes later at 10.22pm. They had initially struggled to find the house, which ran off an access road parallel to Central Coast Highway at Erina.

As four officers walked up the driveway they heard 47-year-old Pearce yelling loudly “I’m going to kill you. I’ll f..king kill all of you”.

It was then a bright burst of fire lit up the night sky as Pearce used a deodorant can and a lighter as a homemade “flamethrower” to shoot from his kitchen window towards the bedroom window of next door.

At 10.24pm police “formed the view there was an imminent threat to life and property” and made a collective decision to force entry.

Detectives leaving the house as a forensic officer continues the investigation at the doorway where Pearce was shot. Picture: Tim Hunter.

One officer kicked the front door about four to six times as another held his belt and a railing to stop him falling backwards off the small landing.

As they yelled “police, open the door” Pearce was inside yelling “I’m going to f..king kill ya”.

The door opened a crack and officers could see a shirtless Pearce holding an axe above his head.

The closest officer exclaimed “F..k. Axe” and “Oh f..k” as he did a “pin drop” off the landing at the top of the stairs, about a storey high, landing between a garden bed and a 4WD parked in the drive.

The Highway Patrol sergeant standing directly behind had his firearm drawn. Fearing “an immediate risk to my life” fired two shots in quick succession, followed by a third.

“There was no other way to prevent an attack, there was no escape route that I could take, as there was police behind me and a handrail on either side,” the officer later told a critical investigation team.

“I thought I was going to be killed.”

Officers who were trying to force entry were trapped on the small landing on the top of the stairs when Pearce opened the door. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Deputy State Coroner Carolyn Huntsman delivered her findings last week in which she stated there was nothing else the attending officers could have done faced with the split second decision.

She also found there was little else by way of information they could have been provided about Pearce, his possible substance abuse or the threat of a weapon, which could have changed the outcome prior to their arrival.

Magistrate Huntsman also found while the Highway Patrol officer was not provided with a Taser, he may have been too close to Pearce in any event, when he opened the door.

The inquest heard nonlethal options such as a taser or capsicum spray may have had little effect in stopping Pearce from such short range.

Magistrate Huntsman said it was also “regrettable that there is no clear body worn video footage of the incident” which could have shown what transpired and the threat to officers.

Critical incident: Police established a crime scene at the house after the shooting. Picture: Tim Hunter.

One officer forgot to activate his among the “commotion and yelling” when he arrived, another “didn’t think to grab it” and left his in the police car while a third officer didn’t have one because there were none in the docking station when he started his shift.

Ironically the sergeant who fired the fatal shots was wearing a camera and tried to turn it on as he ran towards the bottom of the stairs.

However he only managed to turn it on to standby mode, rather than record, with the camera’s activation log showing it was pressed at 10.25:16pm.

Magistrate Huntsman said she was satisfied the rollout of body worn video was in “an early stage” at the time of Pearce’s death and while it may have been “distressing” for Pearce’s family, the footage could have provided some answers for them.