The state coroner has absolved NSW Police of any blame over the fatal shooting of a Sydney man who lunged at officers with a knife while high on a "potentially toxic" dose of ice.
Teresa O'Sullivan on Thursday handed down her inquest findings into the death of DP - who cannot be named for legal reasons - at Quakers Hill Police Station in January 2016.
She found that the 45-year-old intended to provoke police into shooting him when he entered the station brandishing a kitchen knife and his judgement was "significantly impaired at that time by the effects of methylamphetamine intoxication and possible psychotic symptoms".
"The actions of the officers ... were a reasonable and proportionate response to the actions of DP and the threat that he posed," Ms O'Sullivan said in her findings.
DP was shot in the chest by a sergeant after entering the police station and being told to "drop the knife". He replied: "No, shoot me."
While working as a fly-in, fly-out worker at Curtis Island in Queensland in 2013, he had begun smoking ice more regularly.
DP - originally from New Zealand - told his older brother he took drugs "to combat the loneliness he experienced when away from home" and that ice use was "rife throughout the scaffolding industry" in which he worked.
The inquest heard in the 14 months leading up to his death, DP had reported auditory hallucinations and paranoid thoughts.
During that time he was diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis, schizophrenia and major depression.
In December 2014 he was arrested and charged after punching a complete stranger at Brisbane Airport "for no apparent reason".
He had a brief stand-off with two Australian Federal Police officers during which he begged them to use their Taser on him.
He was calmed down and later told the officers that he couldn't explain his actions and he "wanted the police to shoot him in the head".
Eight days before his death he saw a GP and reported suicidal thoughts.
He was also seen by a psychiatrist at Blacktown Hospital who noted his history of drug-induced psychosis and paranoia, and that he had self-reduced his medication.
On the morning of January 19 he drove to Quakers Hill Police Station and at about 10.30am he entered with a large knife.
After a brief confrontation, he raised the knife at an officer and took a step forward before being shot in the chest from three metres. He died soon after.
A toxicological analysis of his blood found 0.12mg/L for methylamphetamine and less than 0.2mg/L for amphetamine.
"(A pathologist) assessed the methylamphetamine level detected in DP's blood sample as being in the potentially toxic to lethal range," Ms O'Sullivan said.
There was also no trace of ziprasidone, an antipsychotic medication, and olanzapine, used to treat auditory hallucinations and paranoia, both of which he had been prescribed.
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Australian Associated Press
