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Police who shot dead a 15-year-old Melbourne boy during a confrontation last night did everything they could to subdue him, Victoria Police say.
Three officers fired at the teenager as he threatened them with knives in a skate park in Melbourne's north about 9.30pm (11.30pm NZST), after two doses of capsicum spray failed to stop him.
Assistant Commissioner Tim Cartwright said police had also fired a warning shot.
"He was saying: 'Kill me, I am going to kill you'. He had been saying that through the confrontation," Mr Cartwright told reporters.
"I don't think police were trigger happy but that's why we've got a coroner and the homicide squad to do a full investigation on (the coroner's) behalf.
"As far as I know, it happened in a matter of seconds. The police backed off, the young man was extremely agitated, he had two knives and the three officers saw fit to fire on him."
Mr Cartwright said the teenager had been involved in a family dispute earlier in the day and had tried to take two knives from the family home before he was disarmed.
There was no history of drug use or psychological problems with the boy but he had been involved in a minor assault that police knew about, he said.
"The family told us he left the house in an agitated state. He's gone to the Northcote shopping plaza and stolen two knives from K Mart," he said.
Mr Cartwright said the police had acted consistent with their training and had not failed in their job.
"If we step through the events and the investigation we've conducted today, the members did everything they could to talk him down. They deployed OC (capsicum) spray, they backed off," he said.
"At the end of the day one of our member's lives was at risk and the three members saw fit to defend that member.
"This is not a police failure. It's a dreadful tragedy, it's a failure of the community that we get a young man in these circumstances where the ultimate outcome is he violently approached police and he's shot dead."
The shooting has prompted renewed calls for Victorian police to be armed with Taser stun guns.
Police Association secretary Senior Sergeant Greg Davies said that while the full circumstances of the tragedy were not yet clear, a Taser gun may have prevented the fatality.
"Certainly, it seems this may have been a situation where a Taser gun could have been deployed," Snr Sgt Davies said.
"You can almost guarantee if the circumstances were conducive to the use of a Taser, then using a Taser would have meant he wouldn't have had to have been shot. He would have been temporarily disabled and handcuffed."
Victorian Criminal Justice Coalition Convenor Father Peter Norden said they had advocated for more than 15 years for an increase in specialist response teams to people suffering disturbed behaviour.
"The use of capsicum spray and a violent confrontation is often the worst possible response to a young person displaying emotional or psychiatric symptoms," he said.
"The Victorian community calls for a more sophisticated response in dealing with disturbed individuals, particularly very young people."
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