Just a brief comment here because the facts remain unknown. To a NON-Farmer, you will find that some states/territories are Common Law jurisdictions and some are Code jurisdictions (that is, "crimes" are to be found in Criminal codes). Victoria, however, is a Common Law jurisdiction, therefore common law as we know it applies there.

I would suggest also that given the fallout attached to this incident, the Coroner's enquiry would have to be rigorous and supported by forensic evidence.

Reading everyone's comments here, of how much value is capsicum spray, if it failed to subdue this young man? And given the police had nothing in between that, and guns, what choices were available to them? It will be established from the enquiry (although maybe not made public) who was responsible for the fatal shot/s.

I don't seriously think any police officer would have gone in there with the intention to kill this kid, but I do think allowances need to be made for understandable panic any rational person might experience if someone is coming - very quickly - at them with two knives.

If this boy was as mentally disturbed as he is reported to have been, how is it that this had slipped through the cracks of the "system" so that he was able to get to this state?

Nicky

Nicky Nice to see you welcome.
Lets look again at this kid, maybe its me, maybe some lead a sheltered life.
He is in no way the first teenage boy to go bad, if he did in the first few teenage years.
We must remember IF is a word that we must not ignore here Medea so very often makes the news not reports it.

I have seen 15 year olds who did get lost at that age become great kids just a year down the track, we must not judge a troubled child by our standards.

IN my world cops are just human beings, like you and me, and unlike a few who often post on the subject in OLO I am a realist.
I support good cops, they could never be paid what they are worth, a good police officer is pure gold.
Do you know I HAVE seen police kick the hell out of kids? and adults?
Been invited to go shooting dogs killing sheep in a country meat killing yard late at night, gone and shoot police service revolvers.
Returned to the country station to help re load those cartridges so no one would know?
While I stood in a shed doing that my friend took a call bought a prisoner back,
He bashed him while he SAT in a chair.
He filled him with fear, by putting a little dog on Gard, telling the snapping yapping dog to watch the black B&*().
Before I left I asked what did he do? thinking surely he raped some one?
Oh pee,d up against the bank steps!
Police are humans, not wearing halos or being better than us, some are good, some are not, some are very good , some are very bad,
yesterday NSW police after a battle took an adult male into custody after he attacked a woman with an Axe.
After a siege police took him down with tazers, no one was hurt.
Has Victoria more police deaths in custody than all of Australia from 1987 till now?
WHY?

Nicky “If this boy was as mentally disturbed as he is reported to have been, how is it that this had slipped through the cracks of the "system" so that he was able to get to this state?”

What system?

Without elaboration I could tell you of a girl aged mid-twneties, had been experiencing progressively more serious psychosis since overindulging in marijuana on a school trip when she was aged 16.

Her father had spent 2 years trying to get her committed because he believed she was danger to herself and everyone else.

His words fell on deaf ears.

In a psychotic moment she stabbed and carved someone (who I knew) to death with a kitchen knife and is presently in a secure psychiatric ward having been found unfit to plead and will, is she ever becomes ‘fit’, stand trial for murder.

In short, the answer to your question is

There is, no longer a system for him to have fallen between the cracks of.

Fair point Col.

The Mental Health System needs proper Funding .

It's not great Hospital TV Series stuff unfortunately [although one would help] , for the most part it's "all in the mind",until it surfaces, producing grief on a huge scale to those involved, while remaining an occasionally muttered about mystery to others .

It seems that for many in our present generations of younger people mental ill health is still not understood .

This is not good, knowledge must increase and perceptions must change .

Rob P

You say >> “There’s so much high octane rhetoric in there it’s hard to know where to start answering it.

And then you say >> “Somehow I believe you, but you certainly come across as zealous. Point 2 makes me think you had a bad experience that’s now fashioning your defence of the police. That must be where I’m getting the “born-again” vibe.”

Any vibe you’re getting starts and ends with you and your ego.

You say >> “All I’ve said is that the cops should take the path of least damage to control the situation. It’s you who has done all the specious extrapolating.”

What BULLSH!T. You’re the one who has miracle cures for this situation. Spider man nets etc, along with a pollyanna like "no-one gets hurt" attitude. I introduced the reported facts as well as some figures on the difficulty in accurately shooting a handgun in such circumstances, so where does the specious extrapolation come from?

What I’ve said from the beginning is that you can’t sit and judge from the sidelines when you weren’t there.

You say >> “Because I know that if the police force, like anyone else, takes an issue seriously, they can fix anything”

Arrant nonsense. We don’t and never will live in a world were we can eliminate every senseless death.

You say >> “Take a life to potentially protect a life is what it boils down to in this case”

OH, you know of many cases of self defence where that isn’t the case? If the kid doesn’t go nuts with knives no-one gets hurt. Simple. Yet you and people like you want “others” to shoulder the responsibility of this young man’s actions. It’s typical of the culture of zero responsibility encouraged by those on the loony-left.

You say >> “But you’ve also filled all the gaps, like polyfilla, with your ideological a priori opinion. ”

This is astounding from someone who jumped to the conclusion without having any idea of the facts, that the police fired too many bullets, that they didn’t need to fire at all etc

Last two days police in NSW have shot two people none dead
Given 3 police ten bullets in this case, the unproven statement the kids had mental issues I have a question
Why is he dead?
And would some of the opinions seen here change if he was your siblings child?
Or say a young member of the party of your choice?
15 years old, no hardened criminal surely?
A kid
3 cops
ten shots?
42 deaths in Victoria to police with guns? double the same number of NSW in the same time?
Maybe, likely more than the rest of the country in that same period?
Was this kid to blame for them all?