A coroner in New South Wales has delivered findings into the death of Curtis Cheng, the police employee who was shot dead outside the state police headquarters in Parramatta in 2015. The Deputy State Coroner, Derek Lee, examined whether the attack could have been foreseen or prevented, concluding that police had no reasonable opportunity to stop it.
The killing took place in October 2015 as Cheng was leaving his work at the New South Wales Police headquarters in Parramatta. According to the inquest, a 15-year-old boy, a Year 10 student, walked up to him at close range and shot him in the back of the head before the situation escalated further outside the building.
The teenage gunman was then shot by a special constable who responded to the attack. Much of the coroner's work focused on the events leading up to that day and on whether law enforcement could have identified the threat or intervened before the shooting occurred outside the police complex.
The inquest noted that several associates connected to the case, four in particular, have since been convicted of terrorism-related offences, including a man who provided the revolver used by the 15-year-old gunman. While those individuals had come to the attention of counter-terrorism officers, the coroner found the teenager himself was not under actual surveillance.
Deputy Coroner Lee said much of the critical evidence in the case was only gathered after the day of the shooting. That included CCTV footage of the gun being handed over, which took place at the Parramatta Mosque but outside the view of the cameras, as well as WhatsApp conversations between the associates that were obtained only later.
On the central question of prevention, the coroner found that law enforcement did not miss any reasonable opportunity to identify or anticipate what was coming. While the persons of interest were known and were being investigated, the findings concluded there was no realistic chance for police to have predicted the gunman's actions or to have intervened beforehand.
The inquest also examined the circumstances of the gunman's death. The coroner said that after shooting Cheng, the teenager fired into the air toward the police headquarters, prompting three special constables to come outside, one of whom shot him. With lives at risk and no path to surrender, the coroner found there was no alternative, and that the action may have prevented further deaths.