Melbourne police officer had no choice but to kill Numan Haider, coroner finds

HE joked with friends that he would be dead before his final exams. And within 60 seconds of meeting him, cops opened fire.

A POLICE officer had no choice but to shoot dead a radicalised Melbourne teenager who launched a stabbing attack on another officer, a coroner has found.

Numan Haider, 18, died instantly when shot in the head on September 23, 2014 after stabbing two counter-terrorism officers who had arranged to meet him outside Endeavour Hills police station.

“There was no time or opportunity for the officers to use a lower force to prevent further injuries,” Victorian coroner John Olle said in his findings on Monday.

There were no adverse findings against ASIO, Victoria Police, or Australian Federal Police among Mr Olle’s comments.

Numan Haider’s friends used to joke that he wouldn’t be alive for ghis final exams.

A Victoria Police officer and an AFP officer had arranged to meet Haider outside the suburban police station to assess his attitude and establish whether he was a threat to national security.

About 7.30pm Haider rang one of the officers to say he was parked outside and they came out to meet him.

Moments after shaking their hands, he produced a knife and stabbed them. One officer got away and saw Haider crouched over his colleague, who was bleeding and unable to reach his weapon.

The nearby officer fired one shot, killing Haider instantly. Mr Olle said the officers were placed in an “invidious position”. “Given the velocity and speed of the attack, support officers would have unlikely altered the outcome,” he said.

The whole incident lasted no longer than a minute.

Haider, 18, was shot dead after stabbing two police officers. Picture: Facebook

The coroner said the two officers did not know Haider had told a friend he wanted to stab police just days before the attack.

Haider had made the comment following a confrontation with police at Dandenong Plaza on September 18 while holding the black and white Shahada flag, often used by IS militants.

He told a friend: “If I had a knife, I would have stabbed ‘em.”

Haider’s family was not in the Victorian Coroners Court on Monday to hear the findings.

The family is overseas, the court was told.

Mr Olle said Haider had become radicalised in the months before his death and was estranged from his family.

He had made comments to friends that he did not believe he would be alive by school exam time.

Scores of people attended Haider’s funeral in at Springvale Cemetery.

Haider’s shooting caused outrage among some groups at the time and sparked debate on social media, including this emotional Facebook post.

But authorities considered him to be a low threat of launching a knife attack. Haider stabbed the officers days after Islamic State issued a fatwa calling on its supporters to kill Australians.

Coronoer Olle said Haider was planning a terror attack before he was shot and killed. He said Haider’s attack on officer’s was opportunistic but that it was clear in the days before September 23 that he was planning an attack, according to the Herald Sun.

The teenager was also upset by recent, widely publicised anti-terror raids in Sydney and Queensland and had made comments about AFP and ASIO officers being “dogs”.