Police misrepresented shooting, court told

A SERIES of official reports produced after the police shooting of Adam Salter falsely stated the mentally disturbed man had been told by police to drop the knife he was holding before he was shot, leading to accusations in the NSW Coroners Court of a ''monumental police cover-up''.

As evidence was played yesterday from the police officer who shot Mr Salter in November 2009 after shouting ''taser, taser, taser'', the court heard that police had misrepresented the events to the public and their own senior command.

The initial situation report prepared by Campsie police, and a situation report prepared for senior command including the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, falsely stated that before Mr Salter was shot police asked him to drop the knife he was holding.

At least one of the reports stated he had then come at police with the knife.

The acting Assistant Police Commissioner, Stuart Wilkins, told a media conference that day Mr Salter had ''confronted'' police.

The lawyer representing Adam Salter's family at the inquest, Stephen Rushton, suggested to the author of one of the reports - Detective Inspector Russell Oxford, of the NSW homicide squad - that a section of it was ''complete nonsense'' and part of a ''gross police cover-up''.

That section of the report included a claim police assisted ambulance officers to restrain Mr Salter. Detective Inspector Oxford denied there was a cover-up. He said the false section of his report had been ''cut and pasted'' from an earlier false report.

The inquest also heard that NSW Police's critical incident investigation, also led by Detective Inspector Oxford, had found that all police officers involved had acted appropriately.

Sergeant Sheree Bissett had acted according to police protocols when she shot the disturbed, bleeding man, because she believed the life of another officer, Constable Aaron Abela, had been in danger.

In a video walk-through interview that formed part of the critical incident investigation, Sergeant Bissett said: ''When he turned, I thought he was going to stab him and kill him.'' ''So, I've just drawn my gun and gone 'taser, taser, taser' and he turned … and so I shot him here [in the back near the shoulder].''

When questioned over her call of ''taser'', Sergeant Bissett said ''it was just the words that came out of my mouth''.

The inquest heard that Detective Inspector Oxford and the NSW Police Professional Standards Command accepted the evidence of the police officers involved in the shooting. They effectively disregarded the evidence of three ambulance officers and Mr Salter's father, all of whom said Mr Salter did not represent a danger to anyone other than himself when he was shot.

Deputy state coroner Scott Mitchell asked why none of the paramedics had been asked to do a walk-through interview. ''I don't understand why the police evidence has been accepted almost completely, while that of the paramedics has been so undervalued.''

Detective Stephen Tedder from the Professional Standards Command - which gave the police actions and the investigation into them a clean bill of health - said critical incident investigations always focused on the actions of police, not ''civilians''.

Speaking outside court, Mr Salter's father said: ''We're confident that the circumstances surrounding Adam's death have been thoroughly explored.''

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