As Adam Salter was dying in an ambulance from a gunshot fired by police, his father still believed his mentally ill son had been tasered, a court has heard.
The 36-year-old was shot dead by Sergeant Sheree Bissett in the kitchen of his father's Lakemba home on November 18, 2009 as he attempted to stab himself.
At the trial of four police officers accused of lying under oath about the fatal shooting of Adam Salter, his father Adrian Salter was rigorously cross-examined about his memory of the final moments of his son's life.
Mr Salter recalled how he watched from a nearby room as his son - who was being treated by ambulance officers on the floor of the kitchen - got to his feet and moved towards the kitchen sink where there was a knife.
"When Adam got to his feet, nobody stopped him. I didn't understand why there was a room full of trained people and nobody stopped him," he told the NSW District Court on Wednesday.
Court heard that in the "matter of seconds" from when Adam stood up and when he was shot in the back by Ms Bissett, Mr Salter had rushed into the kitchen and attempted stop his son from retrieving the knife.
"I did try to put my arms around him but he fended me off. I couldn't grab hold of him."
He became tangled in cords on the kitchen floor and fell to the ground, briefly losing sight of his son, he said before the gunshot rang out.
"I heard 'taser, taser' - I heard the words twice - and then I heard the bang."
The four officers who responded to Mr Salter's earlier triple zero call that day - Sergeant Bissett, 51, Sergeant Emily Metcalfe, 37, Senior Constable Leah Wilson, 41, and Constable Aaron Abela, 33 - are accused of giving false evidence to the 2012 Police Integrity Commission inquiry into Mr Salter's death.
Crown prosecutor Nanette Williams told the court on Tuesday the four officers had "got their heads together" and fabricated a version of events in which they maintained Constable Abela tried to restrain Adam before he was shot by Sergeant Bissett.
The officers have each pleaded not guilty to their charges.
Ms Bissett's barrister Raymond Hood tested Mr Salter's memory of the event, attempting to draw out inconsistencies in the evidence he gave to police compared with his later evidence to a 2011 inquest, as well as his testimony in the current trial.
Among the discrepancies, he noted Mr Salter had initially told police he heard the word "taser" used once but testified at trial to hearing it said twice in quick succession.
"The fact taser was said was more important than how many times it was said because I thought it was a taster that was used," Mr Salter said.
After his son was shot, Mr Salter rushed to grab the knife from his son's hand as he continued to stab himself in the throat.
"[I] saw he was still stabbing himself and I thought he had been tasered."
As he rushed to Canterbury Hospital, where Adam was later declared dead, he was still uncertain about what had happened, asking a detective: "was he shot or tasered?"
The defence lawyers also probed Mr Salter about the moment he briefly lost sight of son as tried to untangle himself from the cables, suggesting he did not see Constable Abela move across the room and attempt to restrain Adam.
But he maintained his certainty that no one intervened to help his son.
"[S]omeone standing in front of the fridge to my right would have been able to step in front of Adam to stop him from getting to the knife. I know this did not happen."
The judge-alone trial before Judge Greg Woods continues at the Downing Centre District Court.
