Few options left to officers in fatal knife attack

BY the time Numan Haider drew a knife – just before he attacked two police officers in Endeavour Hills police station car park on 23 September 2014 – the officers probably had “very limited” options, a State Coroner’s inquest was told this morning.
Rachel Ellyard, counsel assisting Coroner John Olle, said at that point perhaps “the die was cast”.
Examination of Haider’s death should focus on the weeks leading up to his fatal shooting by a police officer on that night, not on the shooting itself, Ms Ellyard said in her opening submission.
She told the inquest that two Joint Counter Terrorism police officers had sought to meet Haider at his Endeavour Hills family home that day.
The 18-year-old wasn’t at home, and later spoke with police on the phone. An officer was unwilling to meet him that night at his suggested rendezvous Hungry Jack’s, Ms Ellyard said.
Haider later suggested meeting out the front of the police station in 15 minutes.
There he waited on the bonnet of his mother’s silver sedan. Two unnamed officers armed with semi-automatic pistols came outside and shook his hand.
“Officer A” asked to search Haider and for the teenager to turn his pockets. Haider produced a silver knife with a wooden handle, and lunged at the officer.
The officer was stabbed in the arm and fell.
Haider then attacked “Officer B” who was searching the car. The officer was stabbed several times and was bleeding heavily from the eye region.
As Haider leaned over the officer, Officer A realised his colleague was about to be stabbed in the stomach and fired a bullet into the attacker’s head.
Haider died instantly, Ms Ellyard said.
In the weeks leading up to the attack, Haider bought knives and tried to obtain a Taser. He’d been talked to by police over holding an Islamic banner – though not an Islamic State flag – in Dandenong Plaza a week before.
He told police at the time they were going to pay for raids in Sydney and Brisbane that day.
Ms Ellyard said Haider had developed a resentment towards police. He’d become agitated when his passport would not be renewed a day before the shooting, by a police search of his bedroom and the belief he was under ASIO surveillance.
His family arrived as refugees fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan when he was seven. The family were moderate Muslims who prized education, Ms Ellyard said.
At the time of the incident, Haider had just finished a Certificate III at Chisholm TAFE with the view to starting an electrician’s apprenticeship.
For the previous two years, Haider had become more religious, often attending a Hallam mosque but also a more “extremist” Al Furqan centre in Noble Park, Ms Ellyard said. In August, ASIO officers warned Haider not to associate with the latter, the inquest was told.
More recently, he had broken up with his girlfriend and was to go to Afghanistan with his parents to find a wife.
The inquest continues.