The father of a mentally ill man fatally shot by police says he wishes he could have helped avert a tragedy that should have been the obvious result of action taken by officers storming his son's house.
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Mark McKenzie's son Todd had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was shot three times by police attending his home on the NSW mid-north coast in July 31, 2019.
Mr McKenzie gave evidence at an inquest on Friday, saying police should have foreseen the deadly result of the raid given his son's psychosis could escalate quickly just by pressing the right buttons.
"It was just one of those Blind Freddy factors. It seemed so obvious that he would not survive if there was any entry into the house," Mr McKenzie told the Lidcombe Coroners Court.
He said his son had been suffering delusions, frequently complaining of people breaking into his home to do things like steal his keys or inject him with poison.
After brandishing a knife on the street and making threatening comments to neighbours during a psychotic episode, police surrounded Todd's home in Taree.
The multi-hour siege ended when police raided the home and Todd allegedly lunged at them with the knife before being fatally shot by officers.
Mr McKenzie said his son would have felt "terrorised" at that moment, and pleaded with officers that he had not done anything wrong by referring to his grandfather's service as an Australian soldier.
"His whole motivation was to convince them that he was a good guy," Mr McKenzie told the court.
"He's turning it back on them and calling them terrorists because they're terrorising him. And I think they were. I honestly think they were."
Mr McKenzie said he did not realise how serious the situation had become despite speaking to his son over the phone during the siege because he seemed to be in control of himself during their conversations.
Despite his son telling him there were 20 officers surrounding his house, Mr McKenzie said he still felt his son could handle the situation.
"All he had to do was open the door and with that calm voice he could have sorted out whatever the misunderstanding was. Because my son is no killer, he's not."
The father said he felt "blindsided" by police who did not let him know his son was having a severe mental health episode, telling the court he could have helped out.
"The whole point of me wanting to take the witness stand is to convince the people here that I could have actually assisted the police," he said.
"I've dealt with this before. The whole family had dealt with this problem about delusions concerning his house."
He criticised the police's "one size fits all approach" using a full tactical response on his son which had also been used to deal with hostage situations, murderers and bank robberies.
The sheer scale of the police presence at the Taree home meant Todd thought he was fighting for his life, the court heard.
"He was thinking like this may be the very end," Mr McKenzie said.
The father said he was ashamed after not digging further into the situation with his son and finding out what was occurring on the day of the deadly raid.
"I let him down," he said.
Regional areas could benefit from something like the PACER program, a $6.1 million NSW government initiative in which mental health clinicians attend emergencies in the Sydney metropolitan area alongside first responders, the court heard.
"Early response is not possible but de-escalation is possible by not getting anyone available with guns and a warrior cop mentality," Mr McKenzie said.
Todd's family gathered at the court for Friday's hearing, wearing T-shirts that bore his name and the slogan, "Nobody deserves to die just because they're unable to comply".
The hearing continues on Monday.
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Australian Associated Press
