Slow, clunky vans prevented a specialist armed police squad stopping the Bourke Street killer before he reached the Melbourne CBD, an inquest has heard.
The Victoria Police critical incident response team could have stopped James Gargasoulas multiple times in the hours before he mowed down and killed six pedestrians in Bourke Street on January 20, 2017.
But a report by the team after the tragedy expressed "sheer frustration" at the inadequacy of their vehicles.
The report said their Volkswagen vans limited their ability to respond to critical incidents swiftly.
"(They are) grossly ill-equipped, slow, overweight, unsuitable, unstable, limited capacity, irrelevant, under performing, poor handling and an unsafe vehicle to be used on the road as a tactical response," says the document, submitted to the inquest into the deaths.
"CIRT could have intercepted and arrested the offender using vehicle intercept techniques hours earlier, before the offender entered Bourke Street.
"That is, the offender would've been stopped well before he committed multiple murders if CIRT were equipped with 4WD vehicles and had been authorised to do so."
One CIRT member complained he was unable to keep pace with the offender as he chased him down Bourke Street, hitting and killing people.
The officer eventually confronted him and fired his gun.
CIRT members said given criminals and terrorists all over the world are using vehicles as their weapon of choice, their vans should be replaced by fit-for-purpose 4WDs so the team can respond properly and safely.
The inquest also heard from civilian witness Timothy Coulson, who locked eyes with the killer while in heavy traffic near the West Gate Bridge before his CBD rampage.
"We just eyeballed each other. He kind of stared me out with this evil look on his face. It was split seconds," he told coroner Jacqui Hawkins.
He saw heavily armed police jump out of vehicles, searching for Gargasoulas before he sped off, with his engine revving loudly and tyres squealing.
"He was looking at the police as he took off. He was going like a bat out of hell, he wasn't stopping for anyone," Mr Coulson said in his statement.
"It would've been 10 to 15 seconds before police ran back to their cars to give chase. It was like they were in a daze, like they were in shock at what they'd just seen."
Mr Coulson told the inquest on Thursday he thought about stopping the offender by pulling out in front of him, but had only a small car and his children in the back.
"Looking back, it would've been quite silly," he said.
Senior Constable Roland Jones of the critical incident response team was one of the officers who chased the offender on foot at that time.
He said in hindsight, he should have stopped vehicles going through the green light as it would have trapped Gargasoulas in traffic and he could have been caught.
His colleague, Leading Senior Constable Martin Krajnc, said he could do little to stop the offender, "short of throwing my body in front of the vehicle which is not a very safe thing to do".
The inquest continues on Friday.
Australian Associated Press
