Triple-0 callers never told police man shot dead was carrying knife

Triple-0 operators never passed on the crucial detail that a man was carrying a knife before he lunged at police and was shot dead on the Monash Freeway.

Triple-0 call takers are being probed for not passing on crucial information that a man had a knife before he tried to attack police and was shot dead.

The father of four was suffering deteriorating mental health due to the pandemic when he lunged at officers with a 25cm knife during a negotiation on the Monash Freeway at North Dandenong.

Police shot the 53-year-old with six bullets after multiple rounds from a beanbag gun failed to stop him running at an officer with the weapon that “looked like a meat cleaver”, about 10am on May 28, 2020.

Constable Timothy Buckler told the Coroner’s Court he feared the man, known as XY, was “going to stab” an officer in the seconds before he was shot.

About 45 minutes earlier, ESTA call takers were told that the man had just left his home with a knife.

Investigators at the scene of the shooting on the Monash Freeway. Picture: AAP

“He had a knife with him, did he?” the call taker asked.

“He did,” replied a wellbeing officer from the man’s children’s school.

The wellbeing officer had been liaising with the family for an hour that morning, after the man banned his kids from going to school and ordered them to switch off the Wi-Fi so they couldn’t be monitored.

But this critical information about the knife was “inaccurately and ambiguously recorded” by ESTA call takers and “nothing was broadcast to attending police units about it”, the court heard.

Officers, having no reason to believe the man had weapons after he denied holding any, decided to arrest him after 10-minutes of negotiations failed to get him off the emergency lane of the Monash Freeway.

But when they moved on him, he pulled a knife from a sheath in his right jacket pocket, held it high and ran at Critical Response Senior Constable Ashleigh Murphy with it.

The court heard multiple rounds of a bean bag gun had “no effect” on the man. Picture: AAP

Senior Constable Murphy emptied his bean bag gun of up to eight rounds of ammunition with “no effect” before tripping backwards, with the man still gripping the weapon and running towards him.

Other police then fired two bullets at the man, who continued running at Senior Constable Murphy with the knife at chest height, before shooting a further four fatal rounds.

Earlier that morning, a good Samaritan stopped on the freeway to help the man, believing he had car trouble.

But he was told: “I don’t care what they do to me, I’ll take a bullet, unless they can protect my family.”

A seven-day inquest will probe the police decision to end negotiations with the man after 10 minutes and arrest him, the ESTA response and the accuracy of the information relayed to officers.

The court heard that following the fatal shooting, ESTA changed how it documented critical information on reports by putting it in highlighted colours and bold text.

But Constable Buckler said, “I haven’t come across that before.”

The inquest, before State Coroner Judge John Cain, continues.

PUSH TO EASE VICTORIA’S TRIPLE-0 CRISIS

Mitch Clarke and Laura Placella

An additional 120 triple-zero operators are set to be deployed in a desperate bid to combat the call taking crisis, but the state government failed to assure Victorians it will be enough to fix the problem.

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes unveiled the $115.6m package just weeks before former commissioner Graham Ashton is set to release his review into the besieged ESTA service.

It comes amid reports 12 people — including four children — died after desperate calls to Victoria’s trouble-plagued triple-zero service went unanwered within the benchmark answering time.

The Herald Sun has previously revealed a series of tragic ESTA failures, including the death of a man whose wife waited 40 minutes for an ambulance.

Herald Sun exclusives have led to major internal reviews, and comes just months after paramedics called for more triple-zero operators.

Ms Symes said the current delays in call taking are “unacceptable” but refused to attribute the slow response times to the deaths of eight to 12 people which are currently being overseen by the Coroner.

“I acknowledge we have unacceptable delays … I want to give this firm commitment that I do not want other families to go through that experience,” she said.

The staffing boost will be rolled out “progressively” until mid-2023, but Ms Symes stopped short of saying it will be enough to fix the systemic issues.

“It will go some way to improving (the system), absolutely,” she said.

“I’m confident we are doing everything we can to ensure that ESTA is supported to do the job they do best.”

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes with interim ESTA chief Stephen Leane. Picture: David Geraghty

Opposition emergency services spokesman Brad Battin said the problem had been created through a lack of government funding over the years.

“Putting Victorians on hold for another 15 months is a failure by this government,” Mr Battin said.

“We’ve got less staff today in triple-zero taking calls than we did two years ago at the start of the pandemic and that’s not good enough.

“Victorians should be angry. I’m angry. We can’t continue to go in the same direction when people dial triple zero for a loved one that’s dying and they get put on hold.”

Victorian Ambulance Union general secretary Danny Hill welcomed the funding boost but said it came “way too late”.

“It’s such a shame that we’ve had to see some real catastrophes, some real tragedies, occur for this sort of funding to be delivered,” he said.

“I think had this sort of announcement been made around (May), we might not have seen some of the disasters that we’ve heard about recently.”

ESTA Interim CEO Stephen Leane said the service remained under stress, acknowledging that the organisation was struggling to retain staff.

“We’re recruiting as hard as we can, we’re training as quickly as we can, and we’re putting them on to the phones as soon as they’re available,” he said.

Mr Leane urged Victorians to retain confidence in emergency service operators.