A police officer has told a coroner’s inquest that he did not have enough time to turn on his body-worn camera before fatally shooting a Sydney man who ran towards him with two kitchen knives, amid conflicting statements about what happened in the critical moments before the man was killed.
Steve Pampalian, 41, was shot three times by a police officer in the driveway of his home on a quiet suburban street in North Willoughby, Sydney, on May 25, 2023, after suffering a psychotic episode.
She was the second of four vulnerable people, along with Clare Nowland, Jesse Deacon and Krista Kach, who died in separate incidents in consecutive months in 2023 after interactions with police.. The cases prompted increased scrutiny over how police respond to mental health incidents.
The first responding officer, Constable Jason Bryan, told the long-awaited inquest into Pampalian’s death this week that officers typically turn on body cameras when exercising their police powers or gathering evidence, although it is not required.
It was unclear when Bryan turned on his camera, but the inquest heard the camera was off when Pampalian was shot.
“(I) didn’t have enough time to turn it on before when I turned it on,” he said.
The second responding officer, Officer Elizabeth Trupiano, was not wearing a body camera. She told the inquest that between 25% and 50% of the body cameras at Chatswood police station were “not working” at the time and there were none available to her that day.
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In 2022, the then coalition state government set aside $100 million to pay for technology that would automatically activate body cameras when police officers draw Tasers or guns. However, this has been delayed indefinitely to 2023.
“I was in a psychotic state”
The inquest heard that several neighbors called police on the day of Pampalian’s death after seeing him muttering to himself and chasing a woman down the street. All but one of the six neighbors or passersby who have given statements so far did not recognize or know Pampalian, even though he lived with his parents on the street.
“You could see from his facial expressions that he was not in good condition, he was very twisted,” neighbor Ben Carstein told the inquest. “I was in a psychotic state.”
Pampalian’s brother Eddie previously told Guardian Australia this was the first time his close-knit family knew Steve was having a psychotic episode. Eddie had described his brother as a “gentle soul” and said he had anxiety which, at its worst, had caused panic attacks.
Pampalian went to the doctor 11 days before he died to get a new prescription for his antidepressants, which he had been taking since 2014. The doctor didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
Two days earlier, Pampalian had sent a text message to the salon where he worked as a hairdresser saying that a doctor had told him he needed a week off, according to the investigation. His Internet search history shows that over the next two days he searched for terms such as “delusion,” “how anxiety can cause delusion,” “satan in deception,” and “what does the vision of God mean.”
At 10:30 a.m. on the day he was shot, his parents left the house. They said Pampalian seemed normal and they thought he was off work because of the flu.
Carstein told the inquest that he saw Pampalian try to enter a house on the street before entering another, which he did not know was Pampalian’s own house.
“I had only seen one elderly couple there,” Carstein said. “(I) could hear things being smashed.”
“It seemed like less than 30 seconds”
Trupiano told the inquest that the couple responded to the job believing it was an active break-in, not a mental health incident. Both officers had joined the force about two years before the incident. The investigation found that Trupiano had never before used a weapon when responding to an incident.
Trupiano said Bryan got out of the car to talk to passersby while she parked. He said it felt like “less than 30 seconds” had passed between that moment and the time Bryan fired three shots.
Bryan, who has since retired, told the inquest he remembered walking towards the house and seeing a broken window frame on the floor and Pampalian’s feet dangling from the window.
He remembered yelling something like “hey buddy, what’s going on?” before Pampalian moved. Bryan said Pampalian appeared two or three meters away from him, next to the house. He held kitchen knives in the air and ran towards him.
“I was running, but it wasn’t like a fast run or a sprint,” Bryan said.
Bryan ran back and didn’t remember what he said, although witnesses remembered him yelling “police.” Bryan also didn’t remember how many times he fired his gun. He told the inquest he remembered Pampalian falling to his knees after firing a shot. Pampalian then got up and continued toward him holding the knives before Bryan fired again, according to the investigation.
Trupiano also told the inquest that Pampalian fell to his knees before getting back up, although this was not in his initial statement. He said his memory was “fuzzy.”
Neighbors witnessed the tragedy from various points of view. Some told the inquest they saw Pampalian stumble after being shot, but not fall to his knees. One described Pampalian “charging” at police, while another said he was glad police didn’t rely on a stun gun because “this guy would have gone through a brick wall.”
The only resident who recognized Pampalian as his neighbor remembered him differently. She told the inquest that his “arm gestures” were rapid and that he moved faster than normal, but that he was “not a fast-moving soul.” He remembered three shots fired in quick succession, one after the other, before he fell face down.
None of the police officers provided first aid after Pampalian was shot, according to the investigation. When asked about this, Bryan said, “I had a physical reaction to the emotional stress.”
“I was having a human reaction, not a robot reaction, so I was physically incapable of performing first aid,” he said.
Trupiano told the inquest that her first concern was the people around her or whether there were other people inside the house.
Bryan was asked why he didn’t use capsicum spray or a stun gun. He said they were not appropriate because of the immediate risk to his life and the lives of others.
“There were no other options I could have made at that time,” he said.
The investigation continues.
