A police sergeant paused for just six seconds before he entered the scene of the Southport attacks armed only with a baton to confront the killer, an inquiry today.
Sgt Greg Gillespie was warned by a member of the public who had come to the children's aid 'You need a f***** gun mate, that's doing nothing' before he went inside.
It had taken the officer ten minutes to arrive at the Hart Space dance studio after being told there was 'a boy with a knife who had stabbed numerous persons and that there were numerous casualties'.
Alice Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Stancombe, seven, were killed at the Taylor Swift-themed class on July 29 last year by Axel Rudakubana, who was later jailed for a minimum of 52 years.
Today the inquiry into the atrocity was told that when he was directed to go to the scene, Sgt Gillespie overtook a fast response paramedic as he arrived at 11.56am.
