‘This happened very quick’: Beau Lamarre-Condon reenacts shooting Jesse Baird during double murder trial
Former police officer has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in Paddington in early 2024
Beau Lamarre-Condon has demonstrated in court how he claims he shot Jesse Baird, acting out his movements in the witness box in Sydney.
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 19 February 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Giving evidence under cross-examination on Monday, Lamarre-Condon re-iterated his claim that Baird was holding a knife while struggling with the officer in the house.
Lamarre-Condon told the New South Wales supreme court that the knife was next to his throat, which led him to push Baird back with his right arm.
The crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield asked Lamarre-Condon to stand up and demonstrate, telling the accused: “Put your rosary beads down while you do that.”
The officer reenacted the struggle for the jury, with Hatfield describing his movements.
“[The accused] with his left arm out at shoulder height, demonstrated pushing Jesse Baird’s right hand with the knife away from him, so that the left arm was fully extended,” the prosecutor told the jury.
“[Lamarre-Condon] gestured pulling the pistol around the area around his belt … then held it up at around chest or shoulder height and demonstrated with a bent elbow firing a shot towards the right shoulder of Jesse Baird.”
Lamarre-Condon told the court he “discharged a shot” and said he was aiming towards Baird’s right shoulder.
“My arm did extend … I don’t know to what extent … there was constant movement in this struggle,” the accused told the court. “That’s as clear as I can be. This happened very, very quick.”
Hatfield said the officer last week said he was pinned by Baird during the struggle and asked if Lamarre-Condon was now suggesting “something different” by claiming he was constantly moving.
Lamarre-Condon said he was pinned directly before he pushed back and fired the shot, telling the court there was “constant movement” before that.
Asked what Baird and Davies were wearing, Lamarre-Condon said both men were only in their underwear and were not wearing shoes.
During his evidence-in-chief last week, Lamarre-Condon stood by his decision to fire the first shot but claimed a second bullet was “accidentally” fired.
On Monday, he re-iterated he did not intend to fire the second shot at Baird.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
- New South Wales
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Source: www.theguardian.com
