Beau Lamarre-Condon has said he is “guilty of manslaughter” but said shooting Jesse Baird wasn’t intentional, as he gave evidence in his double-murder trial.
The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Baird and his partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney on ۱۹ February ۲۰۲۴.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Lamarre-Condon continued giving evidence at the New South Wales supreme court on Friday. He described the moment he shot Baird, at which point Baird’s mother, Helen, left the courtroom.
“As police officers we are trained to shoot people at the centre of body mass … I had a split-second moment where I said ‘Drop the knife’ … It was just police mode now,” he said from the witness box.
“If I didn’t do that I was ۱۱۰% going to have that knife driven into my throat. And Jesse Baird was going to be sitting in my position today.”
He told the jury about an occasion when he went to the Royal national park with a friend and shot his gun. At this time he was thinking of taking his own life and he wanted to test how loud his gun was, he told the jury.
He said he fired it at a tree. “I was very aware of making sure the bullet didn’t hit any innocent person,” Lamarre-Condon said.
The court also heard Lamarre-Condon signed out his firearm for a shift three days before the alleged murders.
He had permission to do this, he told the court, and on the way to work had stopped at East Village shopping centre in Zetland to get his car washed.
The former officer claimed in court that it was common for police to get coffee or stop off elsewhere on the way to work.
He said he was thinking of stopping at Paddington to get his belongings from Baird before the other man got home from work, which would have put him in the “exact same” position he was in today as his firearm was still in his backpack.
On the day of the alleged murders, the officer said he wanted to retrieve his surfboard, clothes and Cartier ring from Baird’s home.
He took his mother’s car, because he did not want to be recognised, and began driving up and down Baird’s street to look for his ute, the jury heard.
Lamarre-Condon then parked the car in a spot left by Baird’s housemate, he told the jury.
He claimed he did not want to come into contact with Baird due to a risk the other man could take out an apprehended violence order against him as Baird had previously asked him to “please refrain from contacting me”.
Lamarre-Condon told the court he had seen what he assumed to be someone’s delivery motorcycle: “As soon as I saw that I had an idea … I saw a hi-vis hooded jacket, waterproof long pants and gloves.
“This moment here … I wish that I didn’t do this … But I had the thought process that if I was to put on this helmet and outfit I could knock on Jesse’s door I would look like an UberEats driver without any verbal interaction with Jesse,” he said.
The accused claimed Baird’s room was empty when he entered the home and that he looked through some storage boxes in the bedroom in search of his clothes but couldn’t find them.
Lamarre-Condon said he was still wearing the motorcycle helmet and his firearm in a holster under his shirt when Baird saw him.
“He started yelling, ‘We’re getting robbed, we’re getting robbed’ … He couldn’t see it was me because the visor was down,” Lamarre-Condon said.
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At this point he claimed Baird lunged at him.
Lamarre-Condon claimed he aimed for Baird’s right shoulder and discharged the firearm.
The two continued to struggle but the officer’s finger remained on the trigger, the jury heard.
They tripped over a storage box on the ground, which is when Lamarre-Condon “accidentally” discharged the gun, he told the court: “It was my fault … I am guilty of manslaughter … But it wasn’t intentional.”
The jury heard he dialled the emergency hotline to try to get help for Baird.
But when he looked up, he saw Davies, who he didn’t recognise him at the time.
The accused claimed the other man had picked up his gun.
“It was pointed towards me at my chest and he said ‘I’m going to fucking shoot you,’” he told the court.
“I started lowering my body towards the ground: I said, ‘Please don’t shoot me, I’m not here to shoot you. I’m not a threat I’m not here to hurt you.’
“That’s when he raised the gun towards my head and said, ‘Fuck off.’”
The former officer said police are trained to redirect gun muzzles when firearms are pointed at them.
“I saw the gun, he was holding it with both hands I thought fuck he’s going to fire the gun and that’s where my police training kicked in,” he told the court.
“My left hand would have grabbed Luke’s left wrist and turned it away … my other hand pushed against the forearm and then I pushed the pivot point of the left wrist away from me.”
Asked by the defence lawyer whether the gun went off, Lamarre-Condon said: “Yes, during this motion. And it got Luke.”
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
